dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (02/25/86)
Sometime in the next week you may once again see Comet Halley! More -- after this. February 25 Looking for Comet Halley The moon was full yesterday. Each night for the rest of this week the moon will rise later. It will be a waning moon -- shrunken a bit more at each new moonrise. Normally the moon is a lovely sight in the sky. But this month people will be glad to see the moon go away -- since its light interferes with our view of Comet Halley. Halley has been absent from our sky for several weeks -- traveling on the far side of the sun. Now the Earth and Halley have moved in their orbits -- bringing the comet back into our view. The comet will appear next in the southeast before dawn. When we catch a glimpse of it again -- possibly sometime in the next week -- the comet is moving outward away from the sun. Preceding Halley into our morning sky will be the comet's glorious tail. A comet's tail always points away from the sun -- even when the comet itself as moving away as well. Halley's tail should be very bright now -- longer and much more conspicuous than when we last saw Halley in the late January evening twilight. To see Comet Halley -- look toward the southeastern horizon in the pre-dawn hours. Moonlight will interfere for a few days yet -- but after the moon moves out of the way -- you may see just the tail of Comet Halley -- before you have a chance to see its head! Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin