Dr. Thomas Bopp was the guest speaker at my club last night. It was a great presentation and discovery. There were so many things against him the night he co-discovered Comet Hale-Bopp. A lot of you guys may know some of the details but I thought I would post them for anyone interested.
He said he was suffering from withdrawal because the weather in Arizona had been cloudy for weeks. A friend of his called on a night when the sky cleared and wanted to get first light with his just finished home made 17.5” Dobsonian. Here are a few things he had to deal with that could have prevented the discovery all together:
After loading his car he found that it wouldn’t run. As far myself I would have called it a night, But Dr. Bopp borrowed his Father’s car and drove the 90 miles to a sight in the desert.
He and his buddy were looking at a globular in Sagittarius. Being they were using a Dob the cluster would try and drift out of the FOV. Dr. Bopp decided to let it drift and see what else he could see in the area. What if he had went to another deep sky object?
He noticed something fuzzy that he couldn’t focus. Comet Hale-Bopp was 11 magnitude that night. It’s amazing to me that anybody could pick out an 11 mag fuzzy in that crowded region. Plus you have to consider that he admittedly is not a comet hunter.
After checking the charts and deciding it was a comet he tried to call a friend at an observatory. Unfortunately his friend was out of the country. With no phone number to report the discovery he tried to call information for a number when his cell phone battery died. He drove to a truck stop and was trying to send a western union message but realized he didn’t have the address. After arriving home he finally got the address and sent the message. A few hours later the call came in that he had discovered a new comet.
What a night that must have been. I enjoyed the presentation and ended up with a autographed poster of the comet. He asked if I wanted it personalized and I said yes. I asked him to right “To Marty, Sorry!” The sorry being an apology for starting me on this obsession, commonly called Astronomy. See Comet Hale-Bopp is what started me on my quest.
Marty Pinson
Crandall, GA
He said he was suffering from withdrawal because the weather in Arizona had been cloudy for weeks. A friend of his called on a night when the sky cleared and wanted to get first light with his just finished home made 17.5” Dobsonian. Here are a few things he had to deal with that could have prevented the discovery all together:
After loading his car he found that it wouldn’t run. As far myself I would have called it a night, But Dr. Bopp borrowed his Father’s car and drove the 90 miles to a sight in the desert.
He and his buddy were looking at a globular in Sagittarius. Being they were using a Dob the cluster would try and drift out of the FOV. Dr. Bopp decided to let it drift and see what else he could see in the area. What if he had went to another deep sky object?
He noticed something fuzzy that he couldn’t focus. Comet Hale-Bopp was 11 magnitude that night. It’s amazing to me that anybody could pick out an 11 mag fuzzy in that crowded region. Plus you have to consider that he admittedly is not a comet hunter.
After checking the charts and deciding it was a comet he tried to call a friend at an observatory. Unfortunately his friend was out of the country. With no phone number to report the discovery he tried to call information for a number when his cell phone battery died. He drove to a truck stop and was trying to send a western union message but realized he didn’t have the address. After arriving home he finally got the address and sent the message. A few hours later the call came in that he had discovered a new comet.
What a night that must have been. I enjoyed the presentation and ended up with a autographed poster of the comet. He asked if I wanted it personalized and I said yes. I asked him to right “To Marty, Sorry!” The sorry being an apology for starting me on this obsession, commonly called Astronomy. See Comet Hale-Bopp is what started me on my quest.
Marty Pinson
Crandall, GA
