Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 8 Dec, 2021 | Image Credit & Copyright: A. Dimai, (Col Druscie Obs.), AAC

[Conan the Librarian]

My club pulled in large numbers of folks for those two, but, our best event was Halley’s Comet. My club is in Savannah, and, we had our event at Ft. Pulaski. We expected maybe a hundred to show. We had 4,000+ show up!

The funnest part was when the local TV station decided to do a live feed from the event and turned on their area lights so the talking head could be seen. He was almost beaten live on local TV.

I have two favorite memories of Hale-Bopp. One was that my Dad was actually interested in looking at it, and, we would wonder down his street looking for a bit of sky with no trees so it could be seen.

The other was when I first started dating the woman who would become my wife. We went out to dinner at the beach and after, we would normally go for a walk on the beach. Instead, we took pictures of Hale-Bopp. When it started getting down into the city lights to the west, we went for a ride to the other side of town and took more pictures. And she still went out with me after that.

I decided she was a keeper!

[telescope115]

What great stories and memories!
Thanks for sharing them!

[thepoodlebites]

(night vision made the tail 10X longer.)

With FLIR, you should be able to see the entire cat.

[BatGuano]

During the time frame of 1995-1997 I was flying from Anchorage to Osaka, Japan and then returning to Anchorage after short trips to Taipei, Seoul and Manila.
The return flight to Anchorage was an all night flight and gave us the opportunity to view the Hale-Bopp from high altitudes. Most flights were at 37,000 feet and above most of the denser air. Viewing the comet was easy but easier if you didn’t look directly at the comet and tail.
This is because the structure of the human eye is such that the center of the pupil is made of cells called “cones” and the outer part made of cells called “rods.” We use the cones during high light hours and the rods in dark hours.
You can test this by throwing a ball in the air above you at night and try to catch it by looking at the ball. If you look slightly away from the ball, it is easy to catch!
We were able to see the comet for hours....

[Telepathic Intruder]

All this is interesting as I’ve known the rods detect light and are much more numerous in the eye than the cones that detect color. Hense the color blindness at night. I didn’t know that the cones were located closer to the eye’s focus. That explains why you can see dim stars better when you look slightly away from them.