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(meteorobs) Hale-Bopp March 4
My estimates this morning showed the comet at magnitude 0.3 with a 9 degree
tail.
High-powered observations using 200x and 500x with my 33.3-cm reflector
continue to show three distinct hoods within the bright ray of material
spraying toward the southwest and curving back to form the bright tail ray.
The area of brightest emission is extending on the westward side of the
nucleus. The bar-like nucleus reported by John Bortle and myself a few
weeks ago, is really no longer present as it has basically been replaced by
a bright, nearly stellar nucleus with a bright emission. As with yesterday
morning this emission is extending out the west side and seemed to strongly
curve southward and then eastward to form the first and brightest hood.
This comet is nice to look at with the naked eye and binoculars, but
nothing, including my 20x80 binoculars, can show the comet's busy nuclear
region as well as a telescope. This is the most spectacular comet I have
ever seen through a telescope! (I didn't have the magnification to truly
enjoy the fireworks within comet West in 1976.)
Gary W. Kronk