COLUMN: Comet Hyakutake provides rare treat to those willing to get out of city lights and enjoy nature's spectacular show

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by Chris McKenzie

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IN CASE you haven't heard, there's a celestial light show going on every night for the next week or so.

The recently discovered comet Hyakutake is slowly making its way across the sky on its way to the sun.

Scientists say that it will be the brightest comet to come our way in some 20 years.

When it's closest to the Earth, on March 25, Hyakutake (named for the Japanese astronomer who discovered it) will be easily visible near the handle of the Big Dipper.

Already, though, you can spot it with the naked eye in the northeastern sky.

That is, if you aren't at Rice.

We're smack dab in the middle of the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the first thing experts say when telling how to see the comet is, "Get away from the bright lights of the city."

Looks like we're out of luck.

There is, I suppose, the option of driving two hours in any direction (except south), pulling off onto some country road and then looking up.

But that's exactly the kind of situation that attracts serial killers and gelatinous masses from outer space.

I'd rather have something more public and secure.

Problem is, there isn't that much once you get out of the Houston area.

The local press has stayed pretty mum on opportunities to see it or astronomy clubs that are dragging out the big telescopes for it.

This is the first real chance our generation has had to see a good comet. Do you remember the astronomical fiasco of 1986 when Halley's Comet did its fly-by?

I was all psyched up for it, as were many of us nerds in Young Astronauts.

I watched all the TV specials, read all the articles in the newspaper, and my parents even bought the videotape starring William Shatner as "your guide to the heavens."

But Halley's Comet was too far away from the Earth to provide very much viewing pleasure.

With only binoculars to help me, I couldn't even find it in the sky. I never got to see the actual comet, only pictures on TV.

The best thing people our age have seen from comets is when Shoemaker-Levy slammed into Jupiter about two years ago.

Astronomers again trumped it up as something not to be missed, and it did not disappoint.

The newly-repaired Hubble Space Telescope picked up great images of the aftermath of the comet's collision and what it was doing to Jupiter's atmosphere.

But, even for all that, Shoemaker-Levy still wasn't as exciting as we would have liked.

I mean, it collided with Jupiter on the side facing away from us.

We wanted to see the collisions, the explosions, apocalypse, all the things that comets traditionally bring with them.

Instead, what we got were black spots that looked more cigarette burns than cosmic doom.

And besides, we couldn't see it for ourselves.

Astronomy only gets really exciting for us amateurs if we can look into a telescope and see it with our own eyes.

With Shoemaker-Levy, you had to wait to see the photos on TV, and as great as they were, they don't compare to seeing it for yourself.

That's why, for me at least, finding a way to see Comet Hyakutake is so important; there aren't many opportunities in one's lifetime to see big-time celestial events firsthand.

And for this one you don't even really need a telescope ... just a ticket out of town.

Chris McKenzie is a Will Rice College senior.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the March 22, 1996 issue.

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