Working Their Tails Off for Halley’s Comet : Society Is Seeking to Bridge the Gap Between Astronomers and Public

Halley’s comet ought to have an agent. Really.

The poor space wanderer is about to swing by Earth and it isn’t going to make a nickel off the millions and millions that hucksters probably will sweep up like stardust.

Merchants of comet mania will be (and are) selling Halley’s T-shirts, Halley’s pins, Halley’s wine, Halley’s Frisbee-like flying saucers, Halley’s bumper-stickers, Halley’s baseball caps, Halley’s napkins, Halley’s (candy) pills, Halley’s tote bags and heaven knows what else.

It’s zip for the comet, of course.

A Deplorable Fact

But, even worse, by Jupiter, is the deplorable fact that many of these mementoes won’t say a darn thing about what Halley’s is, what it’s up to, or who the heck Halley was.

That’s what disturbs Andrew Fraknoi, executive officer of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, a San Francisco-based group representing about 7,000 professional and amateur astronomers in all 50 states and 66 countries abroad.

“Our main goal is to be a bridge between astronomers and the public,” Fraknoi explained. “We’re like the National Geographic Society of astronomy.”

Fraknoi has launched a campaign to make the comet’s visit to the inner solar system educational. He’s trying on behalf of the society to get souvenir sellers to include a scrap of paper, a society-supplied pamphlet, anything that will tell how “to actually find the comet or what a comet is.”

In a few cases he has succeeded but Fraknoi admits to meeting with mixed success. “I got a call from a vineyard that’s introducing a special Halley’s comet wine, private label,” he said. “I was trying to get them to put just a little information on the label. Nah, didn’t get it.”

On the other hand, the label on a jar of sugar pills--duplicating pills sold to ward off the deadly consequences of comet gas when Halley’s last called, in 1910--contains fascinating tidbits. Like the time the comet was excommunicated by the Pope. Maybe.

“In 1456 Pope Calixtus III allegedly either excommunicated the comet or excommunicated the Turks and included the comet with it,” Fraknoi said, throwing murk on the matter. However, he noted that every time the comet has come around, somebody has tried to label it as a harbinger of disaster. History being what it is, that hasn’t been too tough, he added.

Fraknoi doesn’t doubt that the comet season will give a rocket-like boost to doomsayers this flyby, too.

“There’s one astrologer who’s already made the prediction that the comet is going to be bad news for England and the Middle East,” he said. “Well, this is not too radical a suggestion. I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say there’ll be trouble in England and the Middle East.”

However, the astrologer may have miscalculated when to put that prediction into orbit. “For most people, the comet is just beginning to be in their consciousness and I think astrologers like to get a little bit closer because memory is so short,” Fraknoi observed. “You don’t want to peak too early in the astrology business.”

Sad to say, but, frankly, Fraknoi doesn’t seem to care whether the comet makes a dime, either. “The Super Bowl has souvenirs, why shouldn’t Halley’s comet have souvenirs?” he said, although he thinks some of the merchandise is funny. Specifically, he mentioned a New York entrepreneur who, having failed to license the comet solely for his personal gain, is now soaring by selling doodads emblazoned with a smiling, “sort of Casper the Friendly Comet face.”

“I laughed the first time he called,” Fraknoi said, “but I’m not anymore. He’s sending me articles from Advertising Age (a trade publication) saying that he’s succeeding.”

Worse the Last Time Around

Believe it or not, it was worse the last time around. Tons of sheet music for immortal tunes such as “Halley’s Comet Rag” were sold, as well as a host of gimmicks such as the pills.

In fact, fear was perhaps the best salesman of all.

“In 1910 we went through the tail of the comet,” he said. “Now the tail of the comet is the closest thing to nothing something can be and still be something.” But the offhand comet comment of a French scientist about poisonous gas in Halley’s caused panic, he added. “In rural parts of the United States there was apparently a huge business in gas masks and pills and people stopped up their windows and doors with rags. There were end of the world parties . . . Nothing like that is happening this time, partly because we’re going to be 39 million miles away from the comet. So in a way we’ve been rising morally. Now, the hucksterism is not harmful.”

Well, not entirely.

“There are two things that can and do upset us (astronomers),” Fraknoi said. “One is taking really cheap telescopes that’ll be useless for watching the comet, tripling the price and calling them ‘Halley telescopes.’ That’s sort of unscrupulous and a lot of people are doing that.

“The other is there was a group in New York that began selling official Halley’s comet souvenirs. There’s no way it can be official. What are they going to do, give the money to Halley’s heirs? I thought that was a little below the belt.”

Fraknoi believes it’s not enough to own the flying saucer or the T-shirt. If you’re into Halley’s comet, you ought to pick up a star chart, at least.

“We live in an increasingly scientific age and every survey shows that people, especially young people, know less and less about science,” he said. “You can’t grab people into science by telling them about molecular biochemistry or subnuclear particle physics. . . . But you can grab them with a space flight to Saturn or exploring Halley’s comet.

Course for Laymen

To get its point of view across, the society has published a 36-page pamphlet, “The Return of Halley’s Comet,” complete with star charts, lore and advice on observing the comet.

In addition, Fraknoi is teaching a one-day course for laymen at universities around the state. It’s an easy-to-take combination of slides, a movie and practical advice on Halley’s, he said. Fraknoi’s course is being offered by UCLA Extension Oct. 26. There’s still room.

But Fraknoi also offered some free advice on how to enjoy the comet.

First, the bad news.

“This is the worst pass in 2,000 years and without some kind of help most people are not going to be able to find it,” he said. “Since it is going to be rather dim, the best way to see it will be with binoculars, not with telescopes. The telescopes will narrow your field of view until all you see is the little fuzzy gray patch and seeing a magnified little fuzzy gray patch is still boring.”

Fraknoi recommended 7x35 or 7x50 binoculars and noted that folks will have to travel beyond city lights to see the comet. The best times for looking in Southern California, he said, will be Dec. 30 to Jan. 10 when the comet is in the evening sky to the southwest-west and late March and early April when the comet will be to the southeast-south in the early morning sky.

Apparently an indefatigable optimist, Fraknoi pointed out that spectacular photographs of the comet will be made by satellites launched to study Halley’s. These, he said, will give the best views ever of the comet, no matter what it looks like from Earth.

Be mindful, he warned, that “comets do not swoop through the sky. In this era of (film maker) George Lucas, it’s important to remember that the comet just stays in one place on a given night. It moves slowly as the sky moves--that is, as the earth rotates.”

‘A Dirty Snowball’

Current estimates are that the comet, “a dirty snowball,” is three to 10 miles across, although recent evidence may indicate it is much larger.

Asked why people should care about a dirty snowball, Fraknoi waxed voluble.

“If there’s one thing I would like people to go away with after having seen the comet, it is this idea: The comet represents primordial stuff left over from the formation of the solar system. When the solar system began, it was all, we think, comet-sized pieces called planetesimals, rocky ones on the inside, icy ones on the outside. They all banged together and made the planets . . . Finding out what comets are made of will give us all sorts of clues to what things are like when the system was formed, what organic materials were already here, what was the beginning of the chemical process that eventually led to life on earth.

“So there are grander questions involved than just the study of a snowball.”

Finally, Fraknoi would like to see the comet’s namesake, Sir Edmund Halley (1656-1742), get more credit for his many accomplishments. Halley first predicted the return of the comet but has been virtually ignored on practically everything else he did. Halley had the misfortune to live at roughly the same time as Sir Isaac Newton and thus has been eclipsed by the great scientist, Fraknoi said. Halley’s accomplishments included developing the first actuarial tables, captaining an exploration expedition and developing the first meteorological charts.

“I like to be in the Edmund Halley fan club; he was quite a guy,” Fraknoi said, with the enthusiasm of an agent.