Months with Hale-Bopp Comet

In order to enjoy comets, one must have the policy of "See it with the best effort when it can be seen at all."

It was on Sunday February 9, 1997 very early in the morning that we, Sue and shig, saw the Hale-Bopp comet for the first time. We got up at 2 am at our mountain cabin at Mt. Yatsugatake and set out at 2:30 am into the chill of -6 degrees centigrade. We drove 45 minutes to the other eastern side of the mountain, to Meadow Park above Kiyosato where the east side was wide open.

2月9日早朝、清里の上にある「まきば公園」まで行き、-6度の雪の中で初めて水滴状に青く光るHale-Bopp彗星を見ました。丁度「矢座」のやじりの位置で火矢のようでした。

While Sue stayed in the car for the minimum warmth, Shig set up the telescope in the snow and tried to identify constellations. A glittering man-made satellite passed through the sky full of stars. The reason why Shig had difficulty in identifying constellations was that the first mangitude star Vega in Lyra looked much dimmer than expected because it was still low in the sky. Once Vega was found, Cygnus, the constellation of Swan was easily identified with its right wing still below the horizon. At its beak was a third mangitude star Albireo, or the beta star of Cygnus. Below this beta star, we could see with a binocular the Hale-Bopp comet rising from haze on the horizon. It was at the lower tip of Sagitta, or Arrow constellation. The comet looked like a dimly glowing bluish water drop, or more poetically, like the bluish flaming head of a fire-arrow. With a 100 mm astronomical telescope, a faint tail could be seen. We could not stay long in the chill and left there at 4:30 am into the warm bed again. We took about 20 pictures with a high-sensitivity film of ASA3200 but none came out well. Shig thought wrongly that 30 second exposure must be enough and in a few shots with 120 seconds the comet moved on the film because we did not set the tracking mechanism.

An English Haiku poem at that scene was;
The Hale-Bopp comet; / Th'bluish flaming arrowhead / on th'chilled horizon.

Next week, Aiki, our son, and Shig got up early in our home at Hachioji, a western outskirt of Tokyo, and drove to a near-by park to see the comet. To our surprise, we could see the blue sky before the dawn because the direction of the comet, east north-east, was above nightless Tokyo. Hence;

Dimly glows the comet / low on nightless Tokyo light. / Wish it were higher.

On February 20, Shig got up early at Hachioji alone because no one else followed, and tried the idea of taking pictures by opening a 28 mm wide lens for 60 seconds to minimize movement of the comet on the film. Fortunately, the moon has soon set. It worked and the film captured the comet in the blue sky. The temperature was not too low but around zero degree.

八王子でも見ましたが、東京の灯りの真上になるため、夜明け前でも青空が見え、彗星を見るには適していません。それでも広角レンズで撮影してみました。

An unusually cold weather came to Japan in the weekend of February 22-23. But the cold weather means the clear sky in Japan.　We, Sue and Shig, of course went to Mt. Yatsugatake on Saturday February 22. But the mountains looked white with snow and we did not want to drive next morning as far as Meadow Park because the mountain road was covered with much snow. During the day time on Saturday, we looked around the lower altitude foot of the mountain for a place where the north-east side was open. Finally we found a farm with a good view within 20 minute downhill drive from our cabin.

On Sunday February 23 morning, we got up at 3:45 am. The sky was clear but the temperature was surprisingly -16 degrees. But when we drove downhill to the farm at the foot of Mt. Yatsugatake, the temperature was only -6 degrees there probably because heat from the sunshine in the day time had been stored in the ground. The comet was so bright that it could be easily identified with the naked eye. The tail could be seen with the 100 mm telescope. We took some pictures through the telescope with 60 - 120 second exposure this time with tracking.

異常寒波の中、八ヶ岳山麓の農場から望遠鏡にカメラを接続して撮影しました。

In the weekend of March 8 and 9, we invited Mr. Brian Dougherty, Chairman of Wink, to our cabin in Mt. Yatsugatake to show him around the rural Japan. Seeing an ideal sky on Saturday evening, Shig declared that he would get up early on Sunday morning to see the comet. Hence;

I'll get up in the chill, / regardless of what you do, / to watch the comet.

After a second of pondering, Brian-san told Shig to wake him up. Shig woke up at 3:45 am on Sunday morning and saw a beautiful night sky although clouds were coming. Shig woke up Brian-san and we went out into the chill at 4 am only to find that the whole sky had been covered by the cloud in 15 minutes. Shig felt very responsible. But hoping a luck we drove for 20 minutes downhill to a farm. There were fewer clouds but still we could not hope to see the comet. A man waiting there with a telescope said that the clouds were increasing. Shig thought it was better but he said worse. So Shig thought that the clouds must be generated by the mountain and we might be able to see the comet if we drove further downhill. We drove down to another farm and we could see the comet ! We drove further down to the highway Route 20 and saw the comet much better. Brian-san enjoyed his first view of the comet with bright white tail both with the naked eye and with a binocular. The comet was already too big for a telescope.

3月9日ー10日の週末にWink会長のBrian Dougherty氏を八ヶ岳の山小屋にお招きし、土曜9日夜の空が晴れていたので翌朝起こす約束をしました。日曜朝3:45 amに星降る夜空を確認してから客人を起こし、4 amに外に出たら全天が雲に覆われ星一つ見えなくなっていました。大いに責任を感じて、雲は山から発していると考えて車でどんどん下って行ったら雲が少なくなり、幸い客人に初めての彗星を見て頂きました。

In mid-March, Shig was frustrated becasue the weather was bad every weekend. On clear weekday mornings he woke up early several times to look at the comet near our home at Hachioji. The comet was getting brighter and the tail was now visible with the naked eye but it was apparent that the tailing end was masked by light from Tokyo.

Then, according to astronomical magazines, the best timing to see the comet shifted from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset, although weather didn't allow us to see it any way. In a evening in the last week of March when Shig returned from work and was picked up by Sue at the station, the sky was clear and some stars were visible. We changed the way to stop at a mountain pass. We looked at north-west and instantly found the comet with the naked eye. We returned home to bring binoculars and took a son and a neighbor to come back to the pass. With a binocular, the comet was seen with the tail above the light of Hachioji, much better than Tokyo light.

3月下旬になると彗星は日没後に見えるはずでした。或る日ワイフに迎えに来て貰った最寄駅で空を見ると星が見えたので、峠から北西の空を見上げるとすぐそれと分かる彗星が見えました。すぐ帰宅して息子とお隣の奥さんを車に乗せて峠にとって返し、双眼鏡とカメラで堪能しました。八王子の灯りの上は東京の上よりはましでした。

Saturday March 29 was the third of consecutive weekends of bad weather and the weather forecast for Sunday was as bad. We were depressed and did not want to go to Mt. Yatsugatake. On Sunday March 30, however, the weather was extraordinarily good in the morning, but clouds came out around noon and soon covered the whole sky. But the manager of the villa village at Mt. Yatsugatake said over the phone that it was still fine there. Sue and Shig set out for Mt. Yatsugatake and were delighted to see the sky without any cloud beyond the tunnel of Sasago. At the mountain, to our surprise, the comet was already visible even in the dusk.　We had an ideal night sky in this evening. Even the nebula of Orion could be seen with the naked eye. We had the best view on this day after all.

In Japan, the comet is literally called "the broom star". We have seen many comets so far, but it was for the first time in this evening that we saw a star like a broom. The white tail was so thick, long and little curved that it looked exactly like a broom. The astronomical telescope was of no use because the comet was too big. The binocular of the 8 times the magnitude was found the best tool. We tried to see the bluish ion tail separated from the white dust tail, in vain, and we assumed that the ion tail must be behind the dust tail. We took many pictures with a zoom lens set to 28 mm and 70 mm for around 60 second exposure on ASA 3200. When the film was developed, we were surprised with pleasure that the blue ion plasma tail was also captured on the film. In the wide angle picture at right, the "W" pattern of Cassiopeia can be seen to the right of the comet facing right. The comet was in Perseus constellation.

3月30日夜東京は曇でしたが八ヶ岳は幸い快晴で、オリオン座の星雲が肉眼で見えるほどの理想的な夜空でした。空が暗いから尾が長く立派に見えます。箒星と言いますが、なるほど箒の形だと初めて思いました。彗星が大きすぎて望遠鏡は役に立たなくなり、双眼鏡なら視野に丁度おさまるので一番奇麗に見えました。驚いたことに肉眼では見えなかった青いイオンの尾が写真にはちゃんと写っていました。広角で撮った写真の右端にはカシオペア座のＷが右向きになっているのが見えます。彗星はペルセウス座に居ました。

Do you know why a comet has two tails ? Tails consist of dust, particles and ions knocked out of the nucleus by the solar heat and solar wind, which is the flow of proton or hydrogen ion. Tails are blown out by the solar wind and pulled by the solar gravity. As a farmer separates grains and husks in the wind, the tails separate into the lighter ion plasma tail and the heavier dust tail, which is further separated into different bands. This explains why the dust tail curves slightly.

尾が２本ある訳をご存知でしょうか？　尾は、太陽風と太陽熱で核から叩き出された塵、粒子、イオンなどから形成されますが、これらは太陽風で吹き飛ばされる一方で太陽の引力で引っ張られます。お百姓さんが風で穀物と殻を分けるように、彗星の尾も分かれるのです。塵の尾が少しカーブしているのもこの理由です。

Shig went from rainy Tokyo to partly cloudy Osaka on April 7. On the way back by Superexpress "Hikari" or "Light", Shig looked up at the sky at dusk through the train window. In proportion to the speed of the train, clouds flew very fast and Shig saw the comet a couple of times between the flowing clouds. Shig wanted the sky get darker but soon the train came under a thick cloud around Fuji City. It was raining in Tokyo.

新幹線の窓から、流れる雲の間に彗星が見えました。

Cloudy or rainy weather continued since then until we had a beautiful sky on Thursday April 10. Sue and Shig drove 150 km again to Mt. Yatsugatake and back during the evening only to see the comet. We had an ideal night sky there. This time Shig used a 200 mm lens for 60 second exposure. Later we found a picture on encke.jpl.nasa.gov/images/header/9501_970409_tcl.jpg which showed that the position of Hale-Bopp comet on April 9 was almost exactly the same as the position of Hyakutake comet on the same day last year . And my picture of April 10 showed a position not far from there. The bright star near and above the comet is the third magnitude star in Perseus constellation "Algol" or "demon".

天気の良かった4月10日、八ヶ岳まで夜の内に往復して美しい夜空の彗星を撮影してきました。NASAのWeb頁に、4月9日のHale-Bopp彗星の位置と、１年前の同日の百武彗星は偶然にもほぼ同じだったという証拠写真があり、我々が4月10日撮影の写真とも近い位置にありました。

Saturday April 12 was another beautiful day. Unfortunately Sue had something to do in Hachioji, but Aiki, our son, and Shig drove again to Mt. Yatsugatake. This time Shig intended to take pictures of the comet together with the famous huge old cherry tree "Drooping cherry of Shinden" in bloom near Kobuchizawa. To Shig's surprise, the cherry was lighted at night. Instead of lighting the cherry with a flashlight to take its pictures as Shig originally thought, Shig had to cover the lower half of the 28 mm lens for 60 seconds to secure exposure for the comet then to remove the cover for 3-5 second exposure for the cherry. This 3-5 seconds were too long. The exposure should have been less than a second. But any way, the pictures of the intended composition were successfully taken. Thus,

Glowing comet above. / Huge old cherry's bright-lit flowers. / Hard to take a picture.

4月12日夜また八ヶ岳まで往復し、小淵沢近くの「神田の大糸桜」と彗星を一緒に写真を撮りました。意外にも桜が照明されていて明るさが違うので、レンズの下半分を覆って彗星の露出を確保しましたが、目分量が狂って桜が露出過剰気味です。

Next week, the comet could be seen a couple of times from the west window of our home. After the comet was identified with a binocular, it could be seen very faintly with the naked eye. Everytime we saw it, the tail became more vertical, suggesting that relative position of the comet with the sun was changing rapidly. Apparently the comet was going away. We thought so until we, Sue and Shig, went to Mt. Yatsugatake again on April 19 for a overnight stay there and saw the comet. The comet was still big there in the dark sky. The sky in Mt. Yatsugatake is so different from that in Tokyo or Hachioji.

自宅の西の窓から彗星を双眼鏡で見つけてから注視すれば肉眼でも見えるのですが、見る度に尾の角度が垂直に近くなり、太陽との相対位置が急速に変わり、遠ざかっていることを感じました。但し4月19日に八ヶ岳の暗い空で見るとまだ結構大きく見えました。東京と八ヶ岳では空の状態が全然違うことを改めて感じました。

On April 25, when Shig was walking home from the station, Shig saw the comet for the 20th time. The sky was fairly clear and the tail was vaguely seen with the naked eye. The temperature was around 15 degrees centigrade. Seeing 20 times in these 75 days means that Shig saw the comet every time the weather allowed in this season of the year, or more often than Tokyo weather allowed.