dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (03/04/86)
There are many comets brighter than Halley. More on Comet West -- after this. March 4 Comet West Right now is a good time to be looking for Comet Halley. From a country location, the comet should now be visible low in the southeast in the pre-dawn hours. Experienced comet watchers may be reminded of some mornings in March a decade ago, when another comet -- Comet West -- became a spectacular sight to the naked eye. Comet West was discovered by astronomer Richard M. West -- from photographic plates he'd taken at an observatory in Chili. Comet West came in twice as close to the sun as Comet Halley did a few weeks ago. Then on today's date in the year l976 -- as the comet was outward bound from the sun -- Comet West passed by our planet at a distance of about 74 million miles. About this time the comet gave a remarkable show to Earth observers. Over a period of a week the comet's fan-shaped dust tail grew from ten degrees to about 30 degrees long. That's about 60 moon diameters on the dome of the sky. Comet West was a visual delight -- as many photographs reveal. But there was another surprise in store from Comet West. On March 5 of l976, the comet was seen through telescopes to have not one bright core -- but two. The comet was splitting apart. Eventually the core of the comet broke into four pieces before Comet West faded from sight -- ten years ago. Now you have a chance to look for another comet -- Comet Halley -- now in the southeastern sky in the hours before sunrise. We'll be talking more about Halley tomorrow. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin