Memories of Hale-Bopp

Three decades on, Stuart Atkinson vividly recalls the wonder of witnessing the last Great Comet

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Thirty years ago, on the evening of 23 July 1995, amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp were both independently looking at the same globular star cluster. Experienced observers who knew the sky well, Hale and Bopp each noticed a faint smudge close to the globular star cluster M70 that they couldn't find on any of their charts - and it was moving. Soon after, the object was confirmed as a new comet, named C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) in honour of its discoverers.

When it was first spotted, comet Hale-Bopp was just a magnitude +10.5 smudge, but once its orbit was calculated, it became apparent the new comet could be something special. The fact that it was already so bright, while still more than seven times further from the Sun than Earth, suggested the comet's nucleus was much larger than the average comet. It had the potential to be a bright, naked-eye comet when it came closer. And so the long wait began...

By April 1996, with a year to go until the comet made its closest approach to the Sun, Hale-Bopp had brightened and was now visible in binoculars and small telescopes. As the world celebrated the arrival of 1997, the comet continued to brighten. With no sign of it fizzling out like other promising comets had in the past, observers dared to believe their long wait for a bright naked-eye comet might soon be over.