HALE-BOPP COMET SIGHT OF THE CENTURY.Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer No matter if the only star gazing you usually care about involves spotting a leading man or leading lady at some chichi restaurant, astronomers say seeing the Hale-Bopp comet could be a once-in-a-lifetime event. The 25-mile-wide ball of celestial ice and dust is possibly the brightest comet in at least a century, astronomers say. And it will come closest to Earth - 123 million miles - on Saturday. Since it was discovered in 1995, the comet has sparked a host of fears of conspiracy theories ''This is a list of conspiracy theories; it contains alleged conspiracies that are not accepted by mainstream academics. For a discussion of conspiracy theories in general, see conspiracy theory. seemingly as infinite as the universe, but astronomers say not to worry. ``We have been getting a lot of callers saying they know the comet is going to crash into the Earth, there are strange objects following it, etc.,'' said Patrick So, an astronomer at Griffith Observatory Griffith Observatory is located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . ``None of this is true. These sort of things are created by people who do it for publicity purposes.'' Hale-Bopp, named after the amateur astronomers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp Thomas Bopp (born 1949) is a manager at a construction materials factory and an amateur astronomer. He is best known as co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1995. It was the first comet he observed. Comets are traditionally seen as a bad omen. , who discovered it, can best be seen in the northwest sky at about 13 degrees from the horizon after 6:30 p.m. and before 7 p.m. The comet will be visible until about the beginning of May, but the best period will be the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April, when it can be seen slightly later in the evening. Look for a bright object resembling a fuzzy star with a large horizontal tail Noun 1. horizontal tail - the horizontal stabilizer and elevator in the tail assembly of an aircraft elevator - the airfoil on the tailplane of an aircraft that makes it ascend or descend tapering off tapering off Sports medicine A format for competition training, where a world-class athlete ↓ frequency and intensity of training in the wks before an Olympic or other sport event of importance, with the hope that perfomance in the key event will be medal-worthy to the right of the comet's head. So recommends taking a pair of binoculars and heading for desert or mountainous areas for the best view. ``Or go anywhere the sky is dark since you want to avoid city lights,'' So said. Some astronomers predict that Hale-Bopp's brightness might surpass that of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. |
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