Astropro's Website Of the Week Award ©1998 by Richard Nolle

MAY 4, 1998 - Bright Comet Chronicles is a comet hunter's dream site. It's an online repository of data on all the brightest comets to have visited our little corner of the universe from 1800 to 1997. The celestial position, approximate magnitude, and physical appearance of each these interlopers from the Oort Cloud is ready and waiting online for you at this website, thanks to astronomer John Bortle of the W.R. Brooks Observatory.

Of course you'll find details on the two comets that grabbed headlines in the last few years, Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake. Bortle traces each comet's path through the constellations from beginning to end of its naked eye visibility, detailing apparent magnitude and alignments (or near-alignments) with bright stars along the way. One could wish for an ephemeris for each comet, but these time and stellar location chronicles don't provide one. Still, it's enough to get you started - and there are links that will take you to other comet sites (the Comet Observation Home Page, for example, which includes RA/Declination ephemerides for currently visible comets).

Was there a great comet blazing across the sky when you were born? Or at some other particular moment in history that interests you? Bright Comet Chronicles is where you find out.

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer phone or fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA on the World Wide Web at http://www.astropro.com