THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200460
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
In the dark, with the ice in winter and the bugs in summer, amateur astronomer Glendon Howell steps back in time. Stars boil; galaxies whirl; asteroids and comets tumble through the airless void between worlds on journeys that have lasted thousands, maybe millions, of years.
All the while, Howell, a founding member of Back Bay Amateur Astronomers, watches.
``You realize you're looking at the same thing Galileo may have seen,'' he said. ``There's nothing like seeing what's in a textbook with your own eyes.''
By day an electronics mechanic at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Howell joins the members of the astronomy group the first Thursday of each month to scan the night skies. Now comes Comet Hyakutake, which could prove the most spectacular celestial sojourner of all.
``We're very excited by this,'' Howell said. ``I'm really looking forward to getting some pictures.''
The amateur astronomers usually gather at members' homes or in rural North Carolina, just over the Virginia border from Suffolk.
Howell, who owns two telescopes, believes it's too early to tell if Hyakutake will live up to its billing as one of the brightest comets ever.
That distinction was supposed to belong to a comet named Hale-Bopp, which will appear later this year and into 1997.
But so far, matters appear promising. Already, Howell said, Hyakutake is ``pretty bright.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Glendon Howell is hoping clear skies will allow him and the Back
Bay Amateur Astronomers a good view of the comet Hyakutake. ``I'm
really looking forward to getting some pictures,'' he said.
by CNB