Comet Halley


Although many of today's amateur astronomers do not remember it, the 1986 return of comet Halley was one of the most anticipated events of the century, rivaling the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter. Observing programs were organized around the world, a special database for comet Halley observations was set up, and an unprecedented level of worldwide cooperation between professional and amateur astronomers was arranged. An amazing effort seeing as it was before the days of the world wide web! (Yes there really was a time when the web did not exist!!! How did we ever survive!!!!!) :-) A fleet of spacecraft were sent to observe the comet, however the U.S.A. showed how far it's space exploration program had degenerated under president Regan, when it decided that it could not afford to send a mission.

It was also the year that many astronomy magazines and organizations realised that there was life south of the equator! This was because the southern hemisphere had by far the best view of the comet. (And in terms of comets we have been paying for it ever since!!!) :-(

Unfortunately there was also an unbelievable amount of media hype! Much of which was total bulldust, and gave the general public a completely wrong impression of what to expect. The prices of telescopes skyrocketed, and a huge number of people were ripped off by unscrupulous dealers selling pieces of junk labeled as powerful telescopes needed in order to observe the comet! In an effort to counter some of this rubbish, several friends and I started a group called 'Comet Halley Information Service' and we were quickly in great demand for lectures and viewing sessions.

The Murdoch Astronomical Society made good use of the return by using money raised by their public viewing sessions to complete their observatory.

Comet Halley was recovered on October 16, 1982, at the then unbelievably faint magnitude of 24.2! It was achieved with one of the first CCD imagers used with the 200" telescope at Mt Palomar. (This shows how much things have changed in the past 25 years as now amateurs are reaching this magnitude in their backyards)

Many of the photographs below are unguided images, being taken with a 50mm camera on a wooden "barn door" mount that I put together after I had managed to purchase the camera. The photos also illustrate the improvement in films over the past 15 years!

My first successful observation of the comet was on July 29, 1985, when the comet was at magnitude 12.8 in Taurus. This was the first visual observation of the comet in Australia. (It was interesting that when the Perth Observatory sighted the comet for the first time a few weeks later, their press release stated that it their observation was the first 'official' sighting of the comet in Western Australia! From then on, the comet brightened rapidly. reaching naked eye visibility in late November.

December 10, 1985

December 31, 1985

Southern observers lost the comet behind the sun at the beginning of January, although northern hemisphere observers were able to follow it a little longer. My final pre-perihelion observation was on January 3, when the comet was magnitude 4.6 and displayed a tail almost 1 degree long despite being deep in the evening twilight.

Reappearing from behind the sun in late February, comet Halley presented a fine sight in the pre-dawn skies. It was around magnitude 3 and sported a naked eye tail around 3 degrees long.

During March, the comet brightened a little as it approached the Earth, and the tail lengthened as it moved more side on. At the same time the comet moved into much darker skies. When the moon interfered with observations in late March, the comet was magnitude 2.8 and had a tail 6 degrees long to the naked eye.

March 14, 1986

March 15, 1986

March 21, 1986

March 22, 1986

During April, the comet was at its closest to the Earth, and this was the time that the media had reported as the best time for viewing the comet. However this was most definitely not the case. Being close to the Earth, the comet appeared quite large. The naked eye coma was over 40 arc minutes, larger than the moon! This meant that the comet's light was spread out more, making its surface brightness low, and difficult to see in suburban light pollution. Also, at the beginning of April, the comet underwent a tail dislocation event, and lost much of its tail. What there was also happened to be pointing away from the Earth. As a result very little tail could be seen. Even in dark skies, only about 2 degrees of tail could be seen with the naked eye. To make matters even worse, the comet was situated in Scorpius, in one of the brightest portions of the Milky Way, which made it even more difficult to observe.

April 4, 1986

April 5, 1986

April 7, 1986

April 8, 1986

Things improved in mid April as the comet peaked in brightness at magnitude 2.3 and the tail lengthened to 4.5 degrees naked eye, and nearly 10 degrees in the telescope. After this peak, the comet began to fade steadily as it receded from both the Earth and the Sun, finally dropping below naked eye visibility in late May. However there was still one final spectacular to come.

April 18, 1986

April 21, 1986

On April 24, comet Halley was situated about 40 degrees to the west of the full moon. As a result, very little of the comet could be seen. However that night there was a total eclipse of the moon. For this night I had made sure I was in a region of very dark and very clear skies. I was about 1000km north of Perth at the end of a lecture tour on the comet.

As the partial stages of the eclipse progressed and the skies darkened, more and more of the comet and its tail became visible. At one stage it seemed as though the comet was actually growing its tail! During totally the view with the naked eye was astounding. Nearly overhead was this 3rd magnitude comet with a long faint tail reaching downwards past the eclipsed moon. It looked for all the world like a long sword hanging in the sky with a drop of blood falling from the end of it! A truly remarkable sight! Unfortunately the comet and the moon were just too far apart to fit on the one photograph.

April 24, 1986

Upon my return to Perth, the winter weather finally arrived, and this, combined with work committments, seveerly curtailed my observations of the comet. During late April and early May, the comet continued to be a fine sight, visible to the naked eye and with a 2 - 3 degree tail. The waxing Moon finally drove the comet from naked eye view in late May.

May 8, 1986

My final visual observation of comet Halley was in July when the comet was around magnitude 11 and about to disappear behind the sun. On March 2 of the following year, I did try to photograph the comet again. Although below 16th magnitude, the resulting photograph does show a very faint object exactly at the predicted position and in a location where nothing is visible on the "Real Sky" images.

March 2, 1987