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Article: <[email protected]>
From: [email protected](Nancy )
Subject: Hale-Bopp FLARE AT PERIHELION
Date: 24 Feb 1997 14:34:15 GMT
Back THEN, July '96, sci.astro posting re Hale-Bopp to FLARE AT PERIHELION.
Below is a chart going from 1 Apr. '96 to 1 May '97. I've tracked the 4 HB orbit elements give by the IAU, NASA, and twice recently by JPL as 4 separate comets so that the orbits can be compared. I've recently reposted, within the last couple days, the complete orbit element, so I won't do that again here. What I'm showing is that the orbits as given don't vary significantly during the months when HB is supposed to be passing by the giant planets, but at perihelion, when there are no giant planets about to perturb, oops, a flare develops!
My question is why the flare at that time. The explanation for adjustments to the posted orbit of HB were that perturbations or error corrections were being made. No explanation was ever given, and no evidence of perturbation in the orbits during this time - only at perihelion.
| IAU 11/95 | NASA 2/22 | JPL 5/28 | JPL 6/27 | Max Diff | |
| 4/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 19h42m46s | 19h42m44s | 19h42m44s | 19h42m46s | 00h00m02s |
| Dec(S) | 19.35.13 | 19.37.48 | 19.37.45 | 19.35.26 | 00.02.35 |
| 5/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 19h43m59s | 19h43m56s | 19h43m56s | 19h43m59s | 00h00m03s |
| Dec(S) | 17.19.00 | 17.22.17 | 17.22.13 | 17.19.19 | 00.03.17 |
| 6/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 19h28m21s | 19h28m19s | 19h28m19s | 19h28m21s | 00h00m02s |
| Dec(S) | 14.42.60 | 14.46.22 | 14.46.22 | 14.42.38 | 00.03.62 |
| 7/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 18h54m17s | 18h54m19s | 18h54m19s | 18h54m17s | 00h00m02s |
| Dec(S) | 11.50.36 | 11.56.5 | 1.55.54 | 11.51.21 | 00.06.14 |
| 8/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 18h10m14s | 18h10m23s | 18h10m23s | 18h10m16s | 00h00m09s |
| Dec(S) | 8.50.32 | 8.56.56 | 8.56.38 | 8.51.29 | 00.06.24 |
| 9/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 17h38m40s | 17h38m53s | 17h38m53s | 17h38m42s | 00h00m13s |
| Dec(S) | 6.13.19 | 6.37.49 | 6.37.49 | 6.32.28 | 00.06.30 |
| 10/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 17h29m39s | 17h29m54s | 17h29m53s | 17h29m42s | 00h00m15s |
| Dec(S) | 4.57.58 | 5.4.90 | 5.3.58 | 4.58.59 | 00.07.32 |
| 11/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 17h39m57s | 17h40m11s | 17h40m11s | 17h40m00s | 00h00m54s |
| Dec(S) | 3.16.49 | 3.23.14 | 3.23.60 | 3.18.40 | 00.07.11 |
| 12/1/96 | |||||
| RA | 18h4m25s | 18h4m36s | 18h4m36s | 18h4m28s | 00h00m11s |
| Dec(S) | 0.32.56 | 0.39.53 | 0.39.43 | 0.34.25 | 00.06.97 |
| 1/1/97 | |||||
| RA | 18h42m59s | 18h43m2s | 18h43m2s | 18h43m0s | 00h00m61s |
| Dec(N) | 4.53.30 | 4.44.15 | 4.44.28 | 4.51.10 | 00.09.15 |
| 2/1/97 | |||||
| RA | 19h41m26s | 19h41m4s | 19h41m4s | 19h41m21s | 00h00m15s |
| Dec(N) | 15.41.31 | 15.28.90 | 15.28.27 | 15.38.15 | 00.13.04 |
| 3/1/97 | |||||
| RA | 21h24m17s | 21h22m17s | 21h22m19s | 21h23m50s | 00h02m00s |
| Dec(N) | 33.37.20 | 33.18.12 | 33.18.44 | 33.32.13 | 00.19.08 |
| 4/1/97 | |||||
| RA | 1h51m27s | 1h47m24s | 1h47m30s | 1h50m31s | 00h04m03s |
| Dec(N) | 44.21.49 | 44.42.52 | 44.42.28 | 44.26.50 | 00.21.03 |
| 5/1/97 | |||||
| RA | 4h42m12s | 4h41m18s | 4h41m20s | 4h41m59s | 00h00m94s |
| Dec(N) | 25.42.60 | 26.13.12 | 26.12.26 | 25.47.58 | 00.35.32 |