“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?
Image credit: Jim Mazur’s Astrophotography, via Skyledge at http://www.skyledge.net/Messier70.htm.
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!
Image credit: © 2005–2009 by Rainer Sparenberg, image editing by Stefan Binnewies, via http://www.airglow.de/html/starclusters/m70.html.
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