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From: dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate: February 25 Looking for Comet Halley
Message-ID: <424@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Feb-86 02:00:47 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.424
Posted: Tue Feb 25 02:00:47 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 21:15:22 EST
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 33

Sometime in the next week you may once again see Comet Halley!  More --
after this.

February 25  Looking for Comet Halley

The moon was full yesterday.  Each night for the rest of this week the
moon will rise later.  It will be a waning moon -- shrunken a bit more
at each new moonrise.

Normally the moon is a lovely sight in the sky.  But this month people
will be glad to see the moon go away -- since its light interferes with
our view of Comet Halley.

Halley has been absent from our sky for several weeks -- traveling on
the far side of the sun.  Now the Earth and Halley have moved in their
orbits -- bringing the comet back into our view.  The comet will appear
next in the southeast before dawn.  When we catch a glimpse of it again
-- possibly sometime in the next week -- the comet is moving outward
away from the sun.

Preceding Halley into our morning sky will be the comet's glorious
tail.  A comet's tail always points away from the sun -- even when the
comet itself as moving away as well.  Halley's tail should be very
bright now -- longer and much more conspicuous than when we last saw
Halley in the late January evening twilight.

To see Comet Halley -- look toward the southeastern horizon in the
pre-dawn hours.  Moonlight will interfere for a few days yet -- but
after the moon moves out of the way -- you may see just the tail of
Comet Halley -- before you have a chance to see its head!

Script by Diana Hadley.
(c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin