Has anyone ever seen Hailey's comet?

Question

It was last seen in 1985 and 1986... and is not expected to be seen again until 2061. Was anyone out there watching... and if so... what was it like?

Answer 1

Has anyone ever seen Hailey's comet?
Yes. Plenty. In late 1985, I showed it to a woman who had seen it in 1910 (as a young girl).


It was last seen in 1985 and 1986... and is not expected to be seen again until 2061.
Normal. Its period is approximately 76 years.


Was anyone out there watching... and if so... what was it like?

It was like a comet. Visible to the naked eye (but not too bright). Much nicer in binoculars. A bit too big to be fully appreciated in a telescope.

Because it was so far south in declination at its best (Spring 1986), I went to Barbados to see it and I remember drawing it (as seen through binoculars) on my star atlas on successive nights. From the drawing, the tail was quite clear and measured a couple of degrees (looked like an open fan, not a long narrow tail); it was at the Southern border of Scorpius.

Answer 2

Saw it from the desert east of San Diego through a telescope on my birthday in January of 1986, then went all the way to Australia to get a better look in April and the only difference was that it was higher in the sky. It was nothing like the previous few appearances and is predicted to be equally disappointing the next time, in 2061.

However, Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake a few years later more than made up for that Halley "Dud of the Century": it was no more than a medium-bright fuzzy spot in the sky.

Answer 3

I was lucky to be in California when Halley was at perihelion. I got up early in the morning and saw it through a 12X monocular. I thought it looked beautiful. It had a nice tail and looked just the way I thought a comet should.

It was nowhere near as bright as Hale-Bopp. That was truly a spectacular comet. I got to see comet McNaught last year over the river north of Buffalo, NY. I had no idea a comet could get that bright -- it looked just like the contrail of a jet lit up by the setting sun. Amazing!

And I got to see comet Holmes just a few weeks ago through binoculars and my small telescope. I've never seen a comet coming head on before. That was cool, too!

Answer 4

It's Halley's Comet, not Hailey's Comet or Haley's Comet. Named after Sir Edmond Halley who discovered it's periodicity in historic records and predicted its return, but didn't live long enough to see it.

I saw it once in 1986. A friend, who was a pilot, and I decided to try viewing it from the air, but were unable to find it. We landed at an airfield near Peterborough Ontario to take a leak (no washroom facilities in a two-seater plane!) and, standing on the edge of the runway, we were able to make it out in binoculars. Very faint...my friend never saw it.

Since then I've been blessed by many much more spectacular comets: Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, Ikeya-Zhang, Schwassmann-Wachmann, and now Holmes, but it was still kind of neat to see, no matter how dimly, the most famous comet of them all.

Answer 5

I was teaching that year and assigned my science students to photograph the comet. It isn't that hard to photograph, and several got good pictures, but has been noted, Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in 1995-1996 were spectacular by comparison. What made Holmes worth watching were its unexpected brightness and its eventual size.

Sorry if any of these disappointed you. A comet is, after all, only a fuzzy star, and its rarity is what makes it a treat. A dark sky, by the way, makes a huge difference!!

Answer 6

I waited for about twenty five years to see Comet Halley. Though it wasn't the best looking comet I have ever seen it was a thrill to see it, first with my telescope, then my binoculars, then with just my eyes. What I saw was not the dim little blur, low in the sky, but the history of astronomy, and the vindication of all the scientists who have ever put their lives and reputation on the line by making "outlandish" predictions.

Ikeya-Seki in November of 1965 gets the nod as my "best" comet, and I saw Comets West, Hale-Bopp, and Hyakutake as well as the true "dud of the century", Kohoutec. I was really bummed to have missed McNaught due to weather and location.

Thanks to having chosen my ancestors well, I've got the genes and with medicine to do the rest, I plan to be watching in 2061 for Comet Halley's return. I'll only be 108 and I plan to show it, dim or not, to my great-great-grandchildren, hoping to encourage them to be waiting to show it to their grandkids in 2138.

Answer 7

Yes, and it was underwhelming, given the hype leading up to it. It was the first big comet in the mass communication era, and there were T-shirts, coffee mugs, the whole thing. It needed binoculars to see it faintly.

There were others in the couple of decades before and after that just didn't get the same coverage. The most extraordinary one I've seen (from eastern Australia) was McNaught in January this year. It filled a quarter of the sky with its tail, and was visible even just after sunset.

Answer 8

Halley was a dud last time, and I didn't see it at all.

Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake, and the recent show by Comet Holmes have more than made up for it.

Never did see Comet McNaught last January. A bit too far south in the sky, plus crummy weather.

Answer 9

Haley's comet was the disappointment of the century. It was nothing more than a blurry star in 1985. If I were Haley, I dropped my name from that piece of schmitt comet. Come to think of it, I have never seen a decent comet that left me feeling anything but disappointed. Even Hale-Bopp to me was nothing spectacular. Maybe I expect too much.

Let me illustrate what I'm talking about.
This is what Haley's comet looked like:
http://www.fanfotography.com/landimages/haley.jpg

This is what it was supposed to look like:
http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/hall/6865/0273.jpg

Answer 10

Halley's last appearance was a bit of a dud. The Earth was on the wrong side of its orbit to get a decent view when it passed through the inner solar-system.

Hale-Bopp was a far better comet for naked-eye viewing.