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Article: <[email protected]>
From: [email protected](Nancy)
Subject: Re: The MANY FACES of Hale-Bopp - ORBIT PERIOD
Date: 2 Apr 1997 14:39:42 GMT
In article <[email protected]> Jedidiah Whitten writes:
>> If the view from Earth, as the RA and Dec calculated by
>> the Orbital Elements represent, moves the Declination
>> UP 3 arc minutes, and Jupiter is BELOW what is supposed
>> to be the passing comet, then that's a 3 arc minute leap away!
>> How could it be otherwise?
>> [email protected]
>
> The comet itself didn't move 3 arcminutes; the predicted
> future position was corrected by that amount after more
> observations allowed astronomers to make more accurate
> predictions.
> [email protected] (Jedidiah Whitten)
There were 936 observations going into the May 28, '96 Orbital Element posting by JPL, then an additional 72 observations up through the June 27, '96 Orbital Element posting by JPL. This was a CLOSELY WATCHED period of time. On May 28, '96 they announced it was at Declination -12 while Jupiter was at Declination -22. On June 27, '96 they announced a new set of Orbital Elements that not only placed Hale-Bopp at Declination -15 on May 28, '96, but also at that Declineation of -15 on June 27, '96.
On what were they basing future predictions? On the fact that it had leapt AWAY form Jupiter?