Coast to Coast AM - Hale-Bopp Companion

Here is a collection of photos, articles, letters and links regarding the Comet Hale-Bopp Companion Issue. Don't forget to check out the side by side comparison of the fraudulent photo submitted by Courtney Brown.

Click on Picture to See Full Size

This was taken March 24th in Willington CT by Martin J Bernier with a 35mm camera through a 28-85mm zoom lens. This was the fifth shot in a series of seven. The object was noticed after the pictures came back from the developers. This clip is a 1200dpi digital enlargement of the photo. The negatives have been secured. Submitted by Ken Beriner.

Art Bell and Whitley Strieber simultaneously release these two images received from Courtney Brown, who received them from an astronomer, one marked up and one not, which identifies the Hale-Mary object nestled deep in the comet's corona, immediately behind it. A complete story by Whitley Strieber is available at The Communion Homepage.

The above images are probably doctored images from this image from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy web site. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over waiting for the astronomer to come forward. Here is a side by side comparison of the two images with a letter from David Tholen, the original imager. See for yourself.

A little fun animation of comet Hale-Bopp and what may come to pass. Submitted by Dave Stephens. This GIF animation file is 381K.

Another animated gif of Chuck Shramek's and Alonso's companion to Hale Bopp photos of the evening of 11/14/96. Judge for yourself. Submitted by Pat Parrinello. This file is 189K.

Lin Landers sends us her art representing Hail Mary.

Hale-Bopp comet photos from Chuck Shramek in Houston, showing a saturn like object nearby. More info at the Great Comet of 1997 Hale-Bopp web page. Additionally, "www.halebopp.com" also shows a Mysterious Right Eye! Also, a report on this sighting at the Farsight Institute.

Here is a "leaked" photo from "somewhere". Note the date stamp, pretty close to the date of Chucks photo.

On April 20, 1996 H. Fukushima and N. Yamamoto of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan photographed the Hale-Bopp Comet. They used the observatory's 50cm Reflector and a CDD Camera. The photograph shows an anomalous feature on the edge of an "object" next to the "Comet". The photograph shows a funnel eminating from the top of the object and gradually dissipating into space. For more info, visit The Farsight Institute.

Naming the Companion

Here are the FINAL vote totals as of Monday 12:30 AM PST:

35% 322 - Hale-Mary or Hail-Mary
16% 152 - Shramek
15% 138 - Shramrock
11% 98 - Big-Bopper
8% 76 - Steve
7% 61 - Genesis
4% 40 - Rapture-Mobile
4% 39 - Kato

100% Total of 926 Valid Votes
52 Other misc votes were not included in percentage.

From: neff@anc.net
To: WStrieber@aol.com
Date: 96-12-09 06:55:54 EST

Whitley,

Excuse the size of this file, but THIS seals it for me. I've put all the images with the object together in a chart, dated, source named, etc... THIS IS A DEFINATE, to me. I've had SOME percentage of doubt about this... but not now. I think once others see this, it will be glaringly obvious. This isn't a "blooming" star.... can't be.

There is a six month gap between the first anomaly (Japanese Nat.Obsrv) and that "origin unknown"/Possible HST photo showing the object; then one month later, Chucks. And, I've lined them up, Chucks (Nov. 14), JNO #1 (Nov.15) and JNO #2 (Nov.16). All have this object, all have ONE HORIZONTAL SPIRE (not a cross spire, as is common) and all are close to the object. The run of images shows that it appears in Chuck's on the 14th, vanishes entirely on the 15th and reappears on the 16!

Also, why aren't equally or near-equally brilliant stars also "blooming" like this? No way. :)

I'm going to put this up at ENIGMA, but you might want to send this to Art Bell also. I assume you have a way to get his attention through all that Lizard-sex-from-other-planets email he gets :)

Wow... what a night :) I have this funny feeling tho that when HB comes back from around the sun in the spring, it will break up or something... or be a dud. But, THIS has at least got people looking out there and questioning things. Maybe that's the importance.

James Neff

Some Photos from Chuck Shramek

Chuck's current setup, the one that took the original image.

Here is Chuck at age 11, with his second telescope. From a newspaper in 1962 from an article on "Chuck Shramek - young astronomical whiz kid"

Chuck is also a Ham, and started this hobby young too.

Tim Puckett Photos

Subject: New Hale Bopp Photo
To: artbell@aol.com

Art,

These are a couple of photo's taken by Tim Puckett. Notice that the first photo has the dual eyes again. Puckett attributes this to a 9th magnitude star, but it is hard for me to believe that a 9th magnitude star can be made as bright as a 4 to 5 magnitude comet. I also do not understand why a lesser magnitude star can be seen at all near a 4 to 5 magnitude comet.

The reason that I have included two photos is that you will notice that the second one is a longer exposure (evidenced by it being brighter). If you take the first photo, and increase the brightness setting on your jpg viewer, you will notice that the photo with the eyes will soon look identical to photo #2.

The point that I am making is that you would never have seen this supposed 9th magnitude star if the exposure on the first photograph had been longer. The "star" is hidden in the glare of the comet. In the same way, the companion can also be lost in this same glare. In conclusion, if more photos were taken the way that the first photo was, or if Halebopp was observed with the same filters that were used in that photo, perhaps the companion could be seen.

The address to see these for yourself is: http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/comets_long/95O1_9610.html

Michael K.

Been following the controversy regarding Hale Bopp for quite some time now and regardless of any problems with the "SLO" or any of the other theories about HB - there *is* something strange going on.

Look at the attached image taken by a japanese observatory and note the large circular object in the lower right quadrant of the picture. That object does not exhibit the smearing of the stars in the background of the picture. And that smearing or streaking effect is caused by the telescope tracking the comet during a time exposure.

Therefore, that object is either keeping pace with Hale Bopp or something far stranger is happening... Something in space is defying the laws of celestial mechanics.

The file HB_1116.JPG is the main image showing the starfield, comet and object and OBJ-1.JPG is an extreme magnification of the object itself. It is remotely possible that this "object" is an extremely bright star which washed out on the film, but considering the similar size and apparent distance from HB of other observations of this object - I dont think so.

Hope this is useful to you. I am still digging and will send you more as I find it and you are interested.

Cheers,

Daniel J. Karnes

From: bhamilto@pcshs.com
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 96 08:46:44 -0700
Subject: [ISO] VIEWING HALE-BOPP
To: in_search_of@lists.primenet.com

Dear All,

On Saturday night, Dec. 7th, a small group of us from MUFON AZ went out to our desert skywatch location to look for come HB. We spotted first with binoculars a little after sunset. We had to wait for the sky to darken in the west. It was low in the west, maybe 15 deg. above the horizon and just a little north of the Milky Way. We had three telesopes. Our best telescope was the Celestron C-8. The consensus of opinion is that HB has a companion. Now Alan Hale said to go out and look for ourselves. We did, but it still looks like there is a second bright object near HB! We switched to a 187X power eyepiece to look at it one last time before it descended into western haze.

AS a footnote, we also enjoyed looking at the rings of Saturn, the ring nebula in Lyra - this is just south of the bright star Vega, and the galaxy in Andromeda.

Sincerely,

Bill Hamilton

Transcript of a phone call by Joe Le'Sesne sent to Art of a conversation Joe had with an astronomer he knows at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

[Joe:] Hi, this is Joe Le'Sesne, I'm not sure if you remember me but we met this past summer at the Astrobiology Workshop in California. We talked briefly about planet formation near close binaries?

[Astronomer] Yes, I remember speaking with you. You asked about figure-eight orbits right?

[Joe:] Yes that was me. Listen, I have a question, several friends have been asking me about an anomalous object near the Hale-Bopp comet which supposedly is being observed by alot professional astronomers. I said to them that while I don't know anything about it, I do know some who might.

[Astronomer] Anomalous object? Hale-Bopp? You know, this is out of my area of expertise but I do remember hearing something about this from (intentionally deleted), their team was looking into it, this was several weeks ago.

[Joe:] Did they say anything specifically about it in terms of size or what its position is in relation to Hale-Bopp?

[Astronomer] No, infact that's what brought it up. We were talking about precise astrometry and they let on that they were taking astrometric observations on an anomaly near the Hale-Bopp comet, which suprised me but I forgot about it until this week. We've been swamped with calls for information.

[Joe:] Ok, would you think they would be willing to go on record with this?

[Astronomer] I don't see why not, perhaps they will submit a paper when they have reduced their data.

Email received by Joe, from Keck Observatory in Hawaii

Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 12:46:57 -0500 (EST)
From: deleted@keck.hawaii.edu
To: Joe LeSesne raver187@m-net.arbornet.edu
Subject: Hale-Bopp anomalies
Hello Joe,
Regarding your inquiry into anomalies in the vicinity of Comet 1995/01 (Hale-Bopp), we have received several inquiries of similar nature. Most of this seems due to a CCD photo of an over-exposed star taken by an amateur astronomer. While we have registered several anomalies with respect to comet Hale-Bopp, we have seen nothing that would support some of the outlandish claims that have been made regarding them. Be advised that we are still reducing data on the said anomalies so they could very well turn out to be error. Since I have been forthcoming with your request I hope you honor your promise of anonymity as we do not want to be bombarded with calls from the media and fanatics.
Thank you, Dr. *********** - Keck Observatory.

More Email received by Joe from The Royal Greenwich Observatory, Greenwich, UK

Date: Tues, 3 Dec 1996 09:21:57 -0000 (GMT)
From: (deleted@ast.cam.ac.uk)
To: Joe LeSesne (raver187@m-net.arbornet.edu)
Subject: Hale-Bopp anomalies
Hello Mr. LeSesne,
Concerning your question about observed anomalies in the same field of view of C/1995-01 (Hale-Bopp) be advised that while I have no firsthand observations or data I have seen data from two teams involved in both astrometry as well as radial-velocity. The anomalie apparently does exist however I cannot say how large or how close to the comet it actually is. The data I saw was preliminary and the team, while excited about their discovery, is following careful procedure in reducing their data. Some tidbits must have leaked out already, no doubt this is what has caused the stir on "The Art Bell Show". Sorry that's all I can tell you about it. Thanks for honoring my request.

A few faxes received by Art Bell on December 2, 1996 regarding Hale-Bopp:

I had a meeting with Len Stringfield in late January or early February of 1992. He had received an onslot of calls stating that the Bush administration was requesting a 30% increase in SDI (Space Defence Initiative). This seems odd since the Soviet Union had fallen the past year. The reason he said was the government beleived that an object may be coming into our solar system and in fact an unknown object had been sighted in the southern hemisphere.

Here is the kicker, from his sources which Len had many, the object was changing shape and switching from a circle then a square and finally to a triangle, the scientists were baffled. His parting words to me was to follow the news services to see if this was going to be reported.

About six weeks after returning to my home in Scottsdale, CNN carried a similar story and then nothing more was heard until Mr. Hale and Mr. Bopp made their discovery. I don't want to remove credit for the discovery from them but I thought this may be one of the missing parts of the puzzle.

Yours truly,
Richard F. Motzer
Arizona Mufon

As per the ongoing situation, I called the Lick Observatory (atop Mt. Hamilton down near San Jose) and spoke to one of the people in charge, who returned my call after an afternoon of repeatedly calling and leaving my number. She (the woman's name was Wendy) informed me that the 'phone lines were literally exploding with requests for info or possible explanations for the anomalous photos & alleged radio signals, as well as that she is an avid listener to Coast-to Coast as of two weeks ago when the first photos broke.

When asked to confirm or deny the existence of the "companion", she stated that, yes, she had received confirmation of such existence from others within the Observatory staff (as well as scientists at other astronomical facilities in the U.S., which she declined to name just yet), but she added that the discovery is so new and so unprecedentally strange that any hypothesis as to the origins of purpose of the object is purely speculative at this time.

She also seemed to want to confirm the report of organized, seemingly intelligent radio signals emanating from the anomaly, but reserved comment, not wanting to wholeheartedly confirm or deny until she saw raw data for herself... she stated that no signals had been recorded by Lick, but also that the Observatory is not really equiped to be a S.E.T.I. station anyway.

Joshua M. Chase
San Francisco, CA

$\"\"$
$\"\"$
home - email - listen - bbs - quickening - links - sponsors - schedule
$\"\"$
$\"\"$