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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1164      1997 Feb 01 16.20UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK             GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK
WORLD WIDE WEB                    http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer
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COMET C/1995 O1 (HALE-BOPP)
Mark Kidger, Direct Imaging Team Leader for the European Comet
Hale-Bopp Collaboration e-mails:
Given the very special nature of Comet Hale-Bopp a special meeting
was held at ESO Headquarters in Munich in February 1996 to arrange
collaboration between European cometary observers to study this
object. A result of this meeting was an application for
International Time for the telescopes in the Canary Islands to
carry out an intensive observing campaign.
This project was presented in July 1996 and awarded time at the
October meeting of the International Scientific Committee that
oversees the functioning of the observatories. Time has been
awarded on the William Herschel, Isaac Newton & Jacobus Kapteyn
Telescope of the British Isaac Newton Group, on the Nordic Optical
Telescope and on the Spanish Carlos Sanchez Telescope. Smaller
telescopes will also contribute to the campaign.
The project involves highly coordinated observations by a large
fraction of the entire European comet observing community
(19 names appear on the proposal, headed by Richard West.. as in
"Comet West", with the active support of some 20 more) and a very
heavy concentration of observing effort, particularly in April
when as many as eight telescopes may be scheduled simultaneously
to observe.
At the Project Coordination Meeting held in Munich a week ago I
suggested that amateur observers could make a valuable
contribution by keeping us up to date with the day-to-day
evolution of the comet. If interesting things appear to be
happening in the light curve we could then be more flexible in
our observing plan to study them (eg: outbursts, splitting,
unusually activity). This was agreed as being a useful adjunct
to the project.
It is suggested that all observers send their data to Guy Hurst
on a daily basis and that this be submitted in TA or ICQ format
(although preferably with notes rather than special characters
in the magnitude column). TA will then send updated files
regularly to us for easy analysis. This file can then be
plotted-up and analysed very easily and daily bulletins issued
to the observers.
The first observations in the William Herschel Telescope are on
1997 Feb 7 and observations will carry on up to the end of April.
There are just 2 isolated nights of observation in February,
rather more in March and a very intense effort in April. It would
be nice if the data could start flowing for the date of the first
observations, just to give us a line on the comet's behaviour.

Editor: Following discussions with Mark Kidger and referral to
Jonathan Shanklin, Director of the BAA Comet Section, we intend
to fully support the above proposal. Effective from today
(1997 Feb 1) we ask that observers send in observations of this
comet DAILY by e-mail. This will not only permit compilation
of a daily report to the professional astronomers, but will
also ease the peak workload for the editor in the preparation
of the comet notes. We would also stress that as far as TA
is concerned we would appreciate daily contributions from all
our observers including those outside Europe. Finally could
I stress we need the results in TA or ICQ format. Delays in
preparation of TA have been serious recently due to submissions
in a non-standard format.
Guy M Hurst