Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) at NOAO

Comet Hale-Bopp Comet Hale-Bopp Comet Hale-Bopp

NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

Comet C/1995 O1 was discovered on July 23, 1995 by Alan Hale (New Mexico) and Thomas Bopp (Arizona). Comet Hale-Bopp will reach its closet point to the Sun on April 1, 1997, a distance of about 0.9 AU. That is about the same distance from the Earth to the Sun. Hale-Bopp will come closest to the Earth on March 27, 1997 but will still be over 120 million miles (1.3 AU) away from us.

Astronomers were welcomed to apply for observing time at Kitt Peak to study Comet Hale-Bopp during the Fall 1996 observing period. And educational materials related to Comet Hale-Bopp may be found on the NOAO Educational Outreach page.

Comets images from NOAO:

yellow ball Images from the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak
yellow ball Images from KPNO 4-m telescope
yellow ball Images from KPNO 2.1-m telescope
yellow ball Images from KPNO 0.9-m telescope
yellow ball Images from the Burrell Schmidt telescope on Kitt Peak
yellow ball Photographs from NOAO staff members (and friends)
yellow ball Images from the Kitt Peak Visitor Center

A few of the many interesting links to pages about Comet Hale-Bopp include 


Note: An AU = 1.5 X 108 km, equivalent to the mean distance
of the Earth from the Sun.
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is at a distance of 0.39 AU from the
Sun.



[NOAO home page]
[Comet home page]




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Updated: 27May1997