Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 06, 2013

And we won’t even mention Comet Kohoutek!

Depending if I live that long, I would be over a century old when it next comes by.

In 1986 the local astronomy club set up telescopes in a city park to view Halley’s. I convinced my elderly mom to get up in the middle of the night to see this rare show. First 2:00 AM traffic jam I’d ever encountered as a lot of folks were similarly inclined. After finally finding a parking space we joined hundreds of others trudging in to the park in the dark, as hundreds of others were leaving after viewing the comet. I never knew why he picked me out in the gloom, but a kid about ten years old on his way out wearily said to me, “It ain’t worth it, mister.” And as simpsonfan2 advised above, the kid was right. (Hale Bopp in 1997 – now THAT was a comet.)

I saw Kohoutek. Of course I was at Kitt Peak at the time. I hope the one this year is at least as good as Hale-Bopp. I’m set up for astrophotography now.

I hadn’t heard of any comet for 2013, so after googling around, I assume Arlo is referring to ISON: http://earthsky.org/space/big-sun-diving-comet-ison-might-be-spectacular-in-2013

Haley’s was a big letdown, I agree…

Just as Halley’s was getting close enough to be viewed in small telescopes in ’86, We moved to Germany where it remained overcast all winter.

Halley’s has been here twice since the Chicago Cubs have won a World Series and here it comes again!

Comet West, back in ‘76 was amazing.But after the Kohoutek fiasco, they didn’t publicize it, so nobody saw it.Halley wasn’t expected to be huge, it never is, it’s just that Halley’s Comet was the first one to have its orbit described, and thus its return predicted. It’s Historical, it isn’t Spectacular.

I liked Hayakutaki, a few months before Hale-Bopp.

I went to the Dry Tortugas to see Halley’s with my honey, it was a great trip (camping on the island all by ourselves) and the comet lived up to what I (like Arlo) had waited for. Like much of life, you have to make things work as not much does otherwise.

My grandfather took a “Halley’s Comet” cruise to Brazil so that he could see it a second time. He was thrilled.

…or a republican; big buildup and then fade to a hazy nothingness.

There’s suppose to be a 187 mile long (think that’s the measurement} meteor passing between the moon and earth on 2/15. So close that it will beneath all the satellites. Slight chance that it could be pulled in by earths gravity.

Halley’s AND that comet that came by in 88. Both busts. They say this latest one may be as bright as the full moon and I’m with Arlo on this.

I got to see the 1979 eclipse in southern Washington State. In person it doesn’t look a thing like the photos.

I usually don’t get to see celestial events because I live on the Oregon coast and it’s pretty foggy from right around sunset to mid-morning. In December, there’s almost always cloud cover, day and night. I didn’t get to see the annular eclipse or any of the meteor showers last year.

Both Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake were very nice comets, so Arlo shouldn’t feel bad about Halley.

In 1986, our group was at Manatee Springs State Park, off the west coat of Florida, when Halley’s Comet was supposedly visible. We must have been at our annual Thanksgiving cookout-in-the-woods, but one night we took some time off from our revelry to hunt for Halley’s. My husband, who was kind of the de facto astronomer of the bunch, took us to the main road in the camp, a two-lane strip of asphalt, and we all lay on our backs and gazed at the sky. We got a really good view of the sky, with precious little light pollution (unlike in St. Petersburg or environs, where all of us lived). Whenever our lookout saw a car coming, we’d have to move. Never saw the elusive Halley’s, but it was fun lying there in the road. (Don’t try this at home, kiddies!)

Hale-Bopp was great. Somehow I missed out on Ikeya in ‘66. Kohoutek was a bust. The one shot I got to look at Halley on its last trip through the ’hood, it was lying so low to the horizon that it was getting lost in the glare from the parking lot lights at the student center at the local community college. The observatory, which was on the CC grounds, was unable to persuade security to kill the lights so we could see Halley; we were stuck looking at Saturn. If I were around to see Halley on the next pass — assuming, of course, the pass is at all visible from the northern hemisphere — I’d be over 100.

I think I saw Halley’s; just as I was trying to triangulate it with near stars, a cloud bank came in and I never saw it again. The second transit of Venus was also a probable; I was using binoculars to project it on the pavement, but my effective tremor made it wiggle to much. Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake, on the other hand were spectacular and visible several times.

For those of you interested, the 3rd panel is supposed to have words in it (they are colored white, the background was supposed to be black.) http://arloandjanis.com/cometose

Hale Bopp definitely made up for Halley’s being such a letdown, and then some.

I was away from the infotainment media at the time, but I knew it was a comet when I looked up while driving home from work and saw what looked like a finger smudge on the sky. Most awesome looking celestial body I’ve ever seen with my naked eyes.

The main problem with Halley’s is that on every return trip it loses more of its mass, so the spectacular displays of it are all in the past.

Maybe Halley’s will be worth the wait in 2060!