Comet 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) in 1997

The file "C1995o1.lab" contains the positions of the (hopefully)
bright comet, "Comet 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)", at five day intervals,
throughout 1997. By all accounts, it should be a spectacular object
around March/April 1997, easily visible from the northern hemisphere.
If you missed last year's comet then don't miss this one - but don't
expect to see the rumoured alien spacecraft accompanying it ;-)

The file is formatted as a Solun labels file. Whilst it is designed
to be viewed graphically on a Solun starchart display it can also be
read directly with the standard Data application.

Each entry in the file describes the position of the file at a
particular date. When plotted on a starchart, the labels appear as a
string of dates that represent the apparent path of the comet.

To use with Solun (v3.0d or later): Copy the file to a "\APP\SOLUN\"
directory. From within Solun, use the "Label files..." menu option
(Psion-F) to choose the file, remembering also to activate the
labels with the "Active" item . Read the Solun manual, Solun.wrd, for
more details of label files. This file is best viewed with the
registered, Series 3a version of Solun. 

To use with Data: Rename the file to "C1995o1.dbf" and copy it to a
"\DAT\" directory. The file should appear under the Data application
where it can be opened as usual. Each record contains three fields:
"r" - right ascension; "d" - declination; "l" - date on which comet
will appear in the approximate position.

Please read the Psion manuals for details of copying files to your
machine.

To find out more about Solun 3.0, view sample screen shots, and
download the shareware demonstration version visit my WWW pages, at
"http://www.between.demon.co.uk/dave/". 

The data contained in the file, "C1996o1.lab", was derived from data
dated 8th November 1996, and published at the following WWW address:
"http://www.eso.org/comet-hale-boop/hale-bopp-eph-nov96jan98.txt". I
make no guarantees of it's accuracy. I could have very easily made a
typo.

David Rushall - January 1997