HPC-1/Teleris cold CCD camera.

Junichi Watanabe, Public Information Office, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan:

"Thank you for your interest in our web site. Yes, we have an anomalous object in 1996 Hale-Bopp photo (at http://www.nao.ac.jp/pio/HB/hb_0420.gif) next to the comet. But it is just the artificial one we often have, where the saturated star caused the electronic trick when the electrons were transfered from the CCD. The direction of the odd plume is perpendicular to the line of transfer, and we are not able to explain the details of the mechanism. However, we can say that it is definitely a star."

Miquel Serra-Ricart, Site Manager of Observatorio del Teide:

"The dark spot is a cosmic ray (the image has not been cleaned of cosmic rays). And the laplacian filter (filter used to enhance jets) gives inverse colours, this is why the comet nucleus appears black. The larger black jet rising from the comet is merely the "brightest" element, which the filter renders darker (notice the core of the comet is solid black)."

Albuquerque Astronomical Society (New Mexico).

The images were taken by Brad Hamlin, John Sefick, and Dennis Mitchel. They used a 16" Astrola with an ST-6 CCD camera. The 0211 image was an exposure of 3 seconds, and appears to have a second nucleus. We were wondering if this could have been a flare since this comet is know to be active. It does not appear to be a bright star since none exists in that specific area.

Dust Ejection Event

R and B-band CCD observations taken at the 1.0m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma by Iwan Williams, Martin Cartwright and Alan Fitzsimmons over September 1st to Septmber 5th have revealed a significant dust feature which moved northwards from the nucleus a distance of approximately 30 arcseconds over 4 nights. The observed motion is consistent wth a constant projected velocity of 250 m/s and an ejection time of approximately September 2.8 UT.

Allen Ginzburg, Aptos, California

CCD image of Hale Bopp. Telesope: 10" Meade LX-200 at f/6.3. Camera: Pixel211 CCD (field approx. 5.5' square). Exposure: 60 seconds. 04:57 UT. It seems to show the nucleus in 2 parts.

Observers: Alberto Quijano Vodniza, Jose Alonso

"Image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 16 inch, F10 reflector. 10 sec exposure. The observatory is part of the University of Puerto Rico, located in the city of Mayaguez, western coast of Puerto Rico (lat = 18 N, long 67 W). The field of view in each image is 5.5 x 7.7 arc min. The image is unprocessed. It is very interesting to note that two objects of very similar luminosity appear aligned along the comet tail. At the first time, we thought that we have gathered comet debris. But carefull examination of the Palomar plates for those sky regions indicated that they are background stars."

Robert Collins, Colorado Springs, Co (6000 + ft.)

Tech Data: Binoculars are Bushnell Explorer II Insta Focus 7 X 50s; Star chart (up to 12th mag) is http://www.drdale.com/comets/images/finders/findhb.GIF

Dec 1st: I went out tonight Dec 1st, 96' to find Hale Bopp and I found it at two observing points south on 115 from Col Springs. At this point I wished I hadn't sold my telescope: At ~ 6 PM MST I observed the comet through binoculars from observation site 1 north of Penrose : In the field of view I saw the fuzzy comet and a bright object to the upper left of the comet: I couldn't tell whether this object was a star etc, but the object flickered more than the surrounding stars: 15 mins later I was at observation point two on the Ft Carson riding range. From there the bright object was gone: I check the star charts and the comet does NOT make any dramatic jumps amongst the background stars. The brightness of this "Star Like" object "equaled" that of the over all comet and brightness was just not compared to the mere comet nucleus which one could just make out in binoculars. Added: Also, this "Object" was noticeably brighter than nearby 6th magnitude stars. For this particular comet ~ 80 to 90% of the brightness appears to be located in an area "close" to the nucleus.

Dec 11th: FYI..........Well, saw what appeared to be the object tonight from 6 to 6:30 PM MST: It stuck close to the back outer Coma of Hale Bopp for the 30 mins I watched it. It on occasion twinkled and disappeared only to reappear in the same position relative to the comet. Comet got too close to the horizon so I had to quit. Now, if it was easy for me anybody should be able to observe this Comet until it fades from sight in the latter part of December.

Dec 12th: Star like object is now just below the Comet: ~ 6PM MST: Had same relative brightness as last night's Dec 11th sighting except now it is in front. No other "stars" in vicinity that could account for brightness of this "object."

Note: Both on Dec 11th and 12th 1996 the closest star to Hale Bopp was a 6th magnitude star according to the Sky & Telescope 1996 star map for the Comet: Both the Comet & Object had an estimated magnitude of ~4 to 4.5: And, the 6th mag star was not close to where I saw the "Star Like Object." Also, this can't be pointed at like Chuck Shramek's report because there was no CCD array to supposedly blow a 9th, 6th etc magnitude star into a 4th or 4.5 magnitude object.

1998 to present Unusual Observations Synthesis

1997 Unusual Observations Synthesis

• 1997 April - December

• 1997 March

• 1997 January - February

1996 Unusual Observations Synthesis

1995 Unusual Observations Synthesis

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