Taking Work Home Pays for N.M. Comet Finder

8/7/95

John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer

SIXTEEN SPRINGS CANYON -- The "observatory" from which astronomer Alan Hale discovered what could be the comet of the century doubles as a basketball court.
As dusk settles over this remote mountain valley in Southern New Mexico, Hale's 8-year-old son, Zachary, dribbles on the concrete apron stretching from the garage, lobbing up a hook shot.
Nearly nothing but net.
In the twilight to the south, Jupiter, the brightest object in the sky aside from the moon, begins to twinkle through the blue dusk, and Dad halts the basketball game by wheeling out his telescope.
Somewhere out there, still obscured by the fading light of day, 450 million miles from earth, is comet Hale-Bopp.
The distant fuzzy blob has caused astronomers the world over to take notice in the weeks since Hale and Arizona stargazer Thomas Bopp first spotted the comet that bears their names on the night of July 22.
Hundreds of observations have flooded in to the International Astronomical Union, a clearinghouse in Cambridge, Mass., that collects and distributes data on comets.
It is the farthest from earth that any comet has ever been discovered, University of Chicago astronomer Pat Palmer said Thursday afternoon as he pored over the latest information on Hale-Bopp's orbit.
To be visible from so far away, it must be bright.
"That's one reason people are enthusiastic," Palmer said in a telephone interview.
On his concrete driveway, Hale pulls the cover off the end of his telescope and points it toward Jupiter.
As long as the telescope is out, he says, he might as well point it at something.
Through the big Meade Instruments' eyepiece, four of Jupiter's moons are visible, shimmering dots of light strung out in a line.
It is that "might as well point it at something" attitude that got Hale his comet.
Hale, a Ph.D. astronomer for whom star-watching is a hobby as well as a profession, was out in the driveway observing already-known comets, collecting data on their brightness.
With time to kill until the next comet rose, he pointed his telescope toward a cluster of stars in Sagittarius known as M70 and saw a fuzzy blob where no fuzzy blob was supposed to be.
He checked his star charts to make sure it wasn't supposed to be there, sent a message by electronic mail to the International Astronomical Union informing it of the discovery, then woke up his wife, Eva.
After she came out to look, she went in and woke up Zachary.
"She said 'Daddy found a new comet,' '' the younger Hale recalled, "and I said, 'Oh no, Daddy and his spacey stuff.' ''
Bright possibilities
So how big a deal is this comet?
Apparently, a big deal to comet-watchers.
The International Astronomical Union, which usually has to go begging for observations to help plot a new comet's orbit, has been deluged with data on Hale-Bopp's location and brightness over the past two weeks.
Small icy bodies that orbit the sun, comets come into view as they get close enough for the sun's rays to illuminate them so they are visible from telescopes on Earth.
The icy core itself is so small -- generally only a few miles across, though Hale-Bopp could be as much as a hundred -- that it is rarely directly visible. But a cloud of gas burned off by the sunlight surrounds the comet as it nears the sun, creating the familiar fuzzy blob and tail that are a comet's signature.
Astronomers discover new ones yearly. In recent years, with organized professional comet-finding efforts, as many as 12 new comets a year have been found, but Hale-Bopp is only the second discovery this year.
There is no way to tell whether Hale-Bopp will turn into the comet of the century, so bright that it will be easily and spectacularly visible with the naked eye.
But it clearly has the potential.
The excitement about Hale-Bopp is that it is so bright so early in its approach to the sun -- brighter than any other comet has been at this point, several astronomers said.
It is far brighter, for example, than was Halley's Comet at the same point in its 1985-86 approach toward the sun.
But astronomers shy away from the question of how bright Hale-Bopp will become, noting that comets are notoriously difficult to predict.
"Whether this will be the comet of the century, where at suppertime you can step out on the back porch with a martini and go, 'Oh, wow,' I don't know," said Warren Offutt, a Cloudcroft-area astronomer who took some of the first pictures of Hale-Bopp.
"With comets you just have to kind of stand back and watch and wait," said Howard Brewington, a hard-core comet hunter who lives near Hale in the Sacramento mountains east of Cloudcroft.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that Hale-Bopp will be bright enough to offer astronomers a good, clear view and therefore a scientific bonanza.
"We have this feeling that we're just long overdue for a truly great comet," said Palmer, who uses New Mexico's Very Large Array radio telescope to study comets.
Profession-passion
Hale has long hunted for comets -- a tedious search of the sky for unexpected blurs that comet-hunters call "sweeping." But it was serendipity that finally earned him his name on Hale-Bopp.
The 37-year-old astronomer and his family built their new home in the mountains partly because its high, clear air and dark skies were ideal for sky-watching.
A graduate of New Mexico State University with a doctorate in astronomy, Hale searched unsuccessfully for a research position, before finally giving up and forming his own non-profit Southwest Institute for Space Research, which does research and education work.
"This was a response to the real cruddy job situation," he says.
But for Hale, there is no line between vocation and avocation, between profession and passion.
He points to the star Antares, appearing above the background light as dusk fades away.
"A lot of this is hobby," he says, turning the telescope around to point toward the bottom edge of Sagittarius, where Hale-Bopp appears to hang in stillness. "I'm an amateur astronomer who also decided to make a professional career out of it -- or at least try to."
Finding a comet -- any comet, let alone one with such promise -- cannot but help his nascent career. "It gives me a little bit of name recognition," he says.
He slides the telescope over toward M70, tugging expertly at its bulky frame until it lines up with the distant globular cluster.
Then a little up and to the right, and there it is in the center of the telescope's field of view -- a fuzzy blob that is comet Hale-Bopp.