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Reflector Book Review:
Everybody's Comet: A
Layman's Guide to Comet Hale-Bopp
Category: Observing
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Everybody's Comet: A Layman's Guide to Comet
Hale-Bopp.
Alan Hale
High-Lonesome Books
P.O. Box 878
Silver City, NM 88062
(503) 388-3763
ISBN 0-944383-38-6
(6 x 9 in.) 162 pages, $13.00
I met Dr. Alan Hale at the Okie-Tex
Star Party. He was the guest speaker, and naturally,
he spoke about his comet. But he was both entertaining
and engaging, and I was much impressed with his presentation
of slides and comments on the impact of the coming apparition
of Comet Hale-Bopp, not only in the scientific community,
but among the public at large. Dr. Hale feels that this
comet gives astronomers a better than usual chance to
educate people about the wonders of astronomy, the problems
that modern astronomers face in a light-polluted world,
and the misconceptions and superstitions that people
often hold. His talk was interesting, and I wanted to
know more.
Fortunately, that afternoon, I had
bought a copy of his new book, Everybody's Comet:
A Layman's Guide to Comet Hale-Bopp. It was inexpensive,
$13.00, and I had only glanced at it during the star
party, so when I got home, I looked at it more carefully.
What one first notices is the eight
pages in the center of the book which contains color
reproductions of Hubble images, photograph of previous
comets, and unusual paintings by Kim Poor and Dan Durda.
Very attractive. The rest of the pictures are black
and white, consisting of a collection of snapshots,
commercial images, and cartoons and drawings. While
not lavish, they serve the purpose to illustrate the
text.
This is a very personal book. It is
as much about Dr. Hale and his views on astronomy and
science as about itself. But in a world of homogenized
popular science books, this not a bad thing. In fact,
it is the personal nature of the text that keeps one
interested.
This book is divided into three sections,
with four large appendices, and includes a Forward by
Thomas Bopp, and a Preface by Janet Asimov.
The first section, "What is a Comet?"
can be skimmed by the experienced amateur, but people
new to astronomy are bound to find it interesting.
The second section, the "Early History
of Comet Hale-Bopp", describes the discovery of the
comet from the point of view of both Hale and his co-discoverer,
Thomas Bopp. It then covers early observations, how
it was determined that this will be, almost surely,
the "Comet of the Century", and describes the types
of misinformation we will probably see in the coming
months.
But the third section, "Prospects
for Comet Hale-Bopp", is the most useful for us today.
It contains a month by month description of what we
will be able to see during the coming apparition in
Spring 1997. Read it now and be ready to answer
all those questions they will be asking you at work
next year.
I enjoyed this book, and find it a
welcome addition to my astronomy bookshelf. I even got
it autographed at the star party by Alan Hale, himself!
Ed Flaspoehler
former Reflector Editor
Reviewed in the November, 1996 issue.
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