Hale-Bopp

[Stuart C. White]

        There is a wonderful sight awaiting those of you who 1) have a view
of the eastern sky, 2) have clear skies in the morning, and 3) get up
around 5:30 AM. If you look east at this time in the morning you will see a
bright star (Altair) a bit above the horizon. Extend your arm and make a
fist. Put the bottom of your fist on Altair. At about the distance of one
fist above Altair, and a bit to the left, you will see a faint "star." Take
a look at it with binoculars and you will rewarded with a view of comet
Hale-Bopp displaying a bright central nucleus, a bright coma (the fuzz
around the nucleus), and a tail going upward (away from the sun). If at
first you don't find it, keep look around; I promise that it is there. Over
the next few weeks it will travel slowly to the left (north) and get
brighter. For those of you who really get into this, check out
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html for more information.

        The nucleus is a conglomeration of ice and dirt and rock, a dirty
snowball. The coma is the halo of mostly water vapor gassed out from the
comet as it is warmed by the sun. The tail is a stream of gas and rocky
debris left behind along the comet's path. Meteor showers occur when the
earth happens to pass through the rocky debris trail left behind the path
of some comet.

        What does the appearance of this heavenly  apparition mean? That
Oral Radiology will be recognized as a specialty in the US this year, of
course. I knew you were wondering what all this had to do with oral
radiology.

        Good viewing,


Stu