From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Jan 12 2001 - 00:55:16 MST
Damien Broderick, <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>, writes:
> Apologies for the length and perhaps the self-indulgence of this post. I've
> been gathering some of my old articles and reviews, and I rather liked this
> one written when Halley's Comet was in the offing. It appeared in a garbled
> form in *Vogue Australia* 15 or 16 years ago. I've now recast my prediction
> of Halley's comet's dimness into past tense, but left the wrong prediction
> that Hale-Bopp would be brighter.
> ...
> For there are other comets (of
> course). Hale-Bopp, say, in April 1997, three times as large, brighter in
> the southern sky than Halley.
I'm confused - Hale-Bopp was discovered in 1995, according to
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/:
: On July 23, 1995, an unusually bright comet outside of Jupiter's orbit
: (7.15 AU!) was discovered independently by Alan Hale, New Mexico and
: Thomas Bopp, Arizona.
That was certainly a good prediction if you wrote it 15 years ago! Not
only predicting a bright comet but who the discoverers would be as
well...
And as I recall, Hale-Bopp was a spectacular comet, visible for months at
least here in the northern hemisphere. I remember seeing it hanging in
the western sky every night when I was driving. Halley's on the other
hand was a real washout for us up here.
Hal
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