“I told my father that someday when I grow up and become an astronomer ‘I’m going to discover something.’” -Thomas Bopp
But who ever would have imagined that a kid with an armchair interest in astronomy, one who as an adult didn't even own a telescope, would stare into a friend's one fateful night at a run-of-the-mill Messier object and find what would grow into the comet of the century?

That man was Thomas Bopp, that comet was Hale-Bopp, and that Messier object that started it all was today's wonder of the night sky, Messier 70!

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