ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130037
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Comet Hale-Bopp, in its warm-up to one of the most-anticipated celestial shows of the decade, is now visible to the naked eye.
Hale-Bopp currently appears as a misty patch of light just above the southwestern horizon, in the constellation Ophiuchus. The comet is expected to grow much brighter this spring as it approaches the sun.
Already, amateur and professional astronomers are awaiting what could be a spectacular comet display.
``I'm personally looking forward to a fantastic show in midspring,'' said comet expert Harold Weaver of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The best time to view Hale-Bopp in November is the first half of the month, before the light of the moon begins to interfere.
Hale-Bopp is already as bright as Comet Halley was in 1986. City lights may make it difficult to find, but drive away from lighted areas and Hale-Bopp should be easy to see. Binoculars will make it even easier to pick out.
Britt Rossie, director of Hopkins Planetarium at the Science Museum of Western Virginia, said the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Roanoke is a good place to observe the comet. One of his favorite spots is the Cahas overlook at Milepost 139.
A free public sky watch is planned by the planetarium Saturday. Persons with questions about that or about Comet Hale-Bopp can call 342-5714.
In December, the comet will move so close to the sun that it won't be visible for several months. It will reappear in February 1997, and grow even brighter during March and April of next year.
How good a show Hale-Bopp will put on depends on factors such as its size. Weaver estimates that the heart of the comet could measure as large as 24 miles across. If true, this would make Hale-Bopp an extraordinarily large comet.
Comets are dusty balls of ice that occasionally swing in to orbit the sun from outside the solar system. As a comet approaches the sun, the heat causes it to spew off dust and gas that reflect sunlight to appear as a spraylike tail behind the comet.
Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered independently last summer by two amateur astronomers, Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona. It comes on the heels of another spectacular comet, Hyakutake, which passed Earth last spring.
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by KRT.by CNB