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Re: IN SYMPATHY to the Hale-Bopp Cooperative


Article: <5fd642$bmo@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: IN SYMPATHY to the Hale-Bopp Cooperative
Date: 3 Mar 1997 00:30:58 GMT

In article: <5fauha$g4h@news.Hawaii.Edu> David Tholen writes:
>> Fine, now since you claim that the Orbital Elements are
>> changed as a result of OBSERVATIONS, please tell us what
>> observation caused the eccentricity of the mythical
>> Hale-Bopp to change from
>> 0.995038361 on May 28, '96 to
>> 0.995072729 on June 27, '96,
>> as announced by JPL.
>> ZetaTalk[TM]
>
> All the observations have been published in the Minor Planet
> Circulars, Nancy. ... There are over 1,900 astrometric
> observations by now, including some made between May 28
> and June 27.
> tholen@ifa.hawaii.edu

In other words, you CAN'T DEFEND IT. In particular this would be true as at the time,

1. Hale-Bopp was supposed to be coming up through the plane of the ecliptic, and
2. the LEAP AWAY FROM JUPITER that Yeoman posted, some 3 arc minutes AWAY from Jupiter at Dec -22 and toward the ecliptic plane for the very same day of May 28, 1996, from Dec -15 to Dec -12, all based on observations per Yeoman,
3. would have given the mythical Hale-Bopp a WIDER ORBIT,
4. which goes hand in hand with a wider, not tighter, eccentricity.

Here again, we have an inconsistency, which is indefensible, in the story line about Hale-Bopp that the public has been fed.

In article <857301563snz@nezumi.demon.co.uk> Martin Tom Brown writes:
>> (Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
>> Fine, now since you claim that the Orbital Elements are
>> changed as a result of OBSERVATIONS, please tell us
>> what observation caused the eccentricity of the mythical
>> Hale-Bopp to change from
>> 0.995038361 on May 28, '96 to
>> 0.995072729 on June 27, '96,
>
> You seem to be complaining because the eccenticity has
> changed by 4 parts in 100000. Try measuring your desktop
> to 5 sig fig and you will quickly reallise what is meant by
> experimental error.
> Martin@nezumi.demon.co.uk (Martin Tom Brown)

Not so, per your fellow above.

In article <5ej7qj$fu7@news.Hawaii.Edu> David Tholen writes:
> No, just the orbital periods are speculative. For example an
> object with a perihelion distance of 0.23 AU and an
> eccentricity of 0.99975 would have an orbital period of
> 28,000 years, but if the eccentrcity is 0.99965, the orbital
> period is only 17,000 years. As anyone can see, the orbital
> period for a nearly parabolic orbit is quite sensitive to the
> eccentricity determination; a tiny change of only 0.0001
> in the eccentricity can affect the orbital period by 40%.
> tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu