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I recall Hale–Bopp being incredibly clear in the sky night after night after night. What are the chances that we will see another comet of that magnitude in our
by divbzero 3y ago
I recall Hale–Bopp being incredibly clear in the sky night after night after night. What are the chances that we will see another comet of that magnitude in our lifetimes?
- pault 3y agoNot only that, you could see it in the middle of the day. After witnessing that I understood why ancient people considered them an act of god.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- finite_depth 3y agoDecent. Great Comets are about a once-a-generation event, give or take. A list of brighter comets of the last ~century listed by peak magnitude (lower is brighter, the limit of a typical dark sky is about +6, Hale-Bopp peaked at -1.8, the brightest star in the sky is -1.68) * The Daylight Comet of 1910, reached a magnitude of -5 * Comet Ikeya-Seki, 1965, reached a magnitude of -10 (close to the full moon!) during the day as it grazed the Sun * Comet West, 1976, reached a magnitude of -3 * Comet McNaught, 2008, reached -5 * Comet Lovejoy, 2011, reached -4 (but was too close to the Sun in the sky to be easily observed by humans) So that's five comets of greater brightness than Hale-Bopp in ~100 years, or about one every 20 years. Hale-Bopp actually wasn't notable for its brightness, but for its size.