10,219 days ago
Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) will make its closest approach to the Earth on 22 March, at a distance of of 1.29 AU.
From Cambridge on the day of perigee it will be visible in both the dusk and dawn skies. In the evening, it will become visible at around 18:24 (EDT), 24° above your north-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 4 hours and 27 minutes after the Sun at 22:27 (EDT). In the morning, it will rise at 01:33 – 4 hours and 10 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 22° above the north-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:19.
The events that comprise the 1997 apparition of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 22 Mar 1997 | Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) passes perigee |
| 26 Mar 1997 | Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) reaches peak brightness |
| 30 Mar 1997 | Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 01 Mar 1997 | Cygnus | Visible from 03:07 until 06:01 Highest at 06:01, 37° above E horizon |
| 03 Mar 1997 | Cygnus | Visible from 17:55 until 18:03 03:03 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 37° above E horizon |
| 05 Mar 1997 | Cygnus | Visible from 17:57 until 18:15 02:59 until 05:55 Highest at 05:55, 36° above E horizon |
| 07 Mar 1997 | Lacerta | Visible from 18:00 until 18:29 02:57 until 05:51 Highest at 05:51, 35° above E horizon |
| 09 Mar 1997 | Lacerta | Visible from 18:02 until 18:44 02:55 until 05:48 Highest at 05:48, 34° above NE horizon |
| 11 Mar 1997 | Lacerta | Visible from 18:04 until 18:59 02:54 until 05:45 Highest at 05:45, 33° above NE horizon |
| 13 Mar 1997 | Lacerta | Visible from 18:07 until 19:16 02:55 until 05:41 Highest at 05:41, 32° above NE horizon |
| 15 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:09 until 19:33 02:57 until 05:38 Highest at 05:38, 30° above NE horizon |
| 17 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:11 until 19:51 03:00 until 05:34 Highest at 05:34, 29° above NE horizon |
| 19 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:14 until 20:08 03:06 until 05:31 Highest at 05:31, 27° above NE horizon |
| 21 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:16 until 20:24 03:13 until 05:27 Highest at 05:27, 25° above NE horizon |
| 23 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:18 until 20:39 03:23 until 05:24 Highest at 18:18, 26° above NW horizon |
| 25 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:21 until 20:53 03:34 until 05:20 Highest at 18:21, 27° above NW horizon |
| 27 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:23 until 21:04 03:48 until 05:17 Highest at 18:23, 29° above NW horizon |
| 29 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:25 until 21:13 04:03 until 05:13 Highest at 18:25, 30° above NW horizon |
| 31 Mar 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:27 until 21:19 04:18 until 05:10 Highest at 18:27, 31° above NW horizon |
| 02 Apr 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:30 until 21:24 04:34 until 05:06 Highest at 18:30, 32° above NW horizon |
| 04 Apr 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 18:32 until 21:27 04:50 until 05:03 Highest at 18:32, 32° above NW horizon |
| 06 Apr 1997 | Andromeda | Visible from 19:34 until 22:28 Highest at 19:34, 33° above NW horizon |
| 08 Apr 1997 | Perseus | Visible from 19:37 until 22:28 Highest at 19:37, 33° above NW horizon |
| 10 Apr 1997 | Perseus | Visible from 19:39 until 22:26 Highest at 19:39, 33° above NW horizon |
A more detailed table of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)'s position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) over the course of its apparition, as calculated from the orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). It is available for download, either on dark background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats, or on a light background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats. It was produced using StarCharter.
Comet brightnesses
Comets are intrinsically highly unpredictable objects, since their brightness depends on the scattering of sunlight from dust particles in the comet's coma and tail. This dust is continually streaming away from the comet's nucleus, and its density at any particular time is governed by the rate of sublimation of the ice in the comet's nucleus, as it is heated by the Sun's rays. It also depends on the amount of dust that is mixed in with that ice. This is very difficult to predict in advance, and can be highly variable even between successive apparitions of the same comet.
In consequence, while the future positions of comets are usually known with a high degree of confidence, their future brightnesses are not. For most comets, we do not publish any magnitude estimates at all. For the few comets where we do make estimates, we generally prefer the BAA's magnitude parameters to those published by the Minor Planet Center, since they are typically updated more often.
No estimate for the brightness of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) is currently available.
The comet's position at perigee will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) | 00h16m50s | 44°36'N | Andromeda | -0.4 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 14 Mar 2025
| The sky on 14 March 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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99% 14 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Source
This event was automatically generated on the basis of orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) , and is updated whenever new elements become available. It was last updated on 23 Feb 2025.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.