Subj: Strange Facts About Comet Hale-Bopp Date: 97-02-12 02:39:03 EST From: kwright@maui.net (Kurt Wright) To: kwright@maui.net Dear friends, Wow! Two messages in one day. Below is number twenty five in our series of messages regarding the fascinating story of comet Hale-Bopp, its anomalous companion and the spiritual implications of this amazing event that is currently taking place in our skies. This message brings us up to date on some of the reasons Hale-Bopp is so fascinating as an astronomical event. Enjoy. Kurt Wright ***Strange Facts About Comet Hale-Bopp*** 1) HB was discovered 20 months from perihelion. Most comets are discovered a month or two out. It's rare for them to be found 3 or 4 months out. Kohoutek blew minds in 1973 because it was found 7 months out -- the farthest out ever. Astronomers still can not explain why HB was even visible that far out - well beyond Jupiter. Furthermore, HB was later discovered on an Australian observatory sky survey photo in 1993 - 40 months out! 2) HB's orbit is almost exactly 90 degrees inclined to earth. (89.4 something - I say something because it keeps changing slightly which is also very weird.) 3) HB approached, and was discovered in Sagittarius. It was there for several years, in a spiral pattern very neatly staying in the 30 degree boundaries of Sagittarius. Sitchen said the 12th planet would come out of Sagittarius. 4) HB also has the same orbital period as the 12th planet - 36 hundred years. 5) As HB leaves the area of the earth this summer, it will track across the constellation Orion - above and parallel to the three belt stars in Orion. 6) After passing through Orion, HB will disappear into the region of the sky called the Duat by ancient Egyptians. It's between Orion and Leo. They believed this is where the souls of the dead should try to get to. 7) As HB is at its closest to the earth on March 22, 1997, it's almost precisely over the north pole of the sun. 8) HB will go over the north pole of the sun. Hyakutake passed directly over the north pole of the earth at an extremely close 9 million miles. Looking at a scale model of the solar system, this is phenomenal chance happening. Like two bullets shot from 100 feet hitting two flies a foot apart and knocking off the left wing of both. 9) Speaking of Hyakutake, it emitted a tremendous amount of X-rays as it passed the earth. They didn't expect any X-rays, much less the abundance they measured. 10) HB's perihelion (closest to the sun) is April 1, 1997. Hyakutake was May 1, 1996. 11) Either HB or Hyakutake alone would have been the brightest comets in a decade or more. 12) As HB is reaches its perihelion it also is right at the line crossing the 0 degree longitude of the celestial map of the earth. (That vertical line where the sun crosses as spring begins). Its also at its highest point in the sky from the earth's celestial equator AND is 45 degrees up from the celestial equator. 13) We've seen three major comet events since 94. July 20th 1994 saw the biggest chunk of Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter - exactly 25 years to the day after the Apollo moon landing! Estimates vary on how often comets hit Jupiter - anywhere from every 10k to 100k years. 14) HB crosses the celestial equator Dec. 5th. Richard Hoagland says this date is a significant alignment of Orion and will be the date when a secret pyramid chamber is opened. (I don't know what the Orion alignment is). (the other crossing of HB back across the celestial equator is June 27 1996 - I don't know if this means anything, but maybe somebody else does) 15) HB's "eyes" were seen July 23, 1996 - a year to the day after it was discovered. If you want my far out interpretation of this, it was a message from those who control the comet. The message, "we know when you first saw us, we see you.) 16) About every two months, they update the ephemeris of HB - it's predicted course. Even Brian Marsden of Harvard concedes there must be "non-gravitational" forces at work to alter HB's orbit. There have been enough observations of HB by now to calculate within feet where it will wind up, but something else is moving it. The last orbital update put it about 13 hundred miles closer to the sun than the previous calculations two months earlier. Not significant when compared to the diameter of the sun at nearly 1 million miles, but too much of a change to dismiss to any errors in calculations or observation. 17) HB was seen in October of 1995 by the Hubble throwing off a huge chunk - NASA's explanation. There were no thermal or gravitational forces strong enough way out there to cause this. (My own view is that the "chunk" was actually another body that HB is orbiting). Perhaps this is why NASA cut off the pictures from Hubble after this. About May, the flow of good pictures from big scopes also ceased. 18) The Gallileo space probe was very close to HB when it was out near Jupiter this past summer. Gallileo was used to photograph asteroids on its way out. NASA surely used it to image HB, although no pictures were ever released. 19) HB has an absolute magnitude of -1.7 -- very very bright. The absolute magnitude is how bright the comet would be if it were 1 au from the sun, and 1 au from the earth. The average brightness for a comet is 7. Only two this century have had absolute brightness' between 4 and 5. Absolute brightness -1.7 is really really phenomenal! 20) HB occulted the moon (the moon passed in front of it) this has never happened in comet history. 21) HB occulted (flew in front of) a star. This gave astronomers a chance to determine its exact size. Of the 7 teams that went out to observe this, 6 had weather or equipment problems. The results from the one remaining team were dismissed because HB made the star dim out for 10 seconds. They said the results couldn't be trusted because a 10 second dip in light would mean the comet was really huge (no I haven't worked out the size of HB based on this result) 22) HB will be bright in the sky in Mongolia during a solar eclipse. This has never happened with any comet. 23) HB passes very close to a number of often photographed deep sky objects. A magnificent sky show. Near its brightest, it will pass very close to the famous Andromeda galaxy, assuring thousands of photos will be taken and nobody will miss it. 24) Somebody using comets is trying to communicate with the people of earth smart enough to see the signs. I think its very clever. Not too "showy" like a huge landing of a space ship which might freak some people out - but signs there for people smart enough to figure them out. Add to all of the above the fact that JPL has been less than current with good and recent pictures. For example, after the latest controversy on the "thing" near HB, they hurriedly posted pictures from the observatory in Slovenia - current but not very good pictures.