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The Story of a Comet Hunter's Life

My 50 years with Comets

Part 42: When Halley's Comet was in the Milky Way 1

"Drifting on, I ended up in Siberia in the north, Java in the south."
    This is a song of a wanderer sung many years ago. At the time of Halley's Comet apparition around 1986, I flew to various places. In Hokkaido I travelled to Kitami city in summer and winter. I also visited the most northern city of Abashiri in Hokkaido three times. I flew to the south and crossed the equator twice, too. The trips were for giving talks and holding observing events. The most interesting thing related to Halley's Comet was that they operated a special 6-car train named "Halley's Comet" between Takamatsu and Kochi on the Japan Railways' Dosansen Line in Shikoku. I joined them halfway through and gave talks to the passengers about Halley's Comet.
    On the sea Kansai Kisen ferry services advertised the "Halley's Comet Observing Ship" competing with similar land travels. I joined in the event to show Halley's Comet on the deck and introduced the world of the stars to the passengers with a slide projector while sailing from Kochi to Osaka. My 9cm comet seeker turned out to be quite useful for the occasion like this. I would bring this comet seeker along to public talks and as far as beaches in the South Pacific. I cannot imagine this will happen again today.
    Around the same time many people visited Geisei Observatory. I remember one particular person vividly among the visitors. It was Mr. M who worked as a pilot for airlines. It was in the spring of 1986, when Halley's Comet was still shining in the sky. I received a sudden phone call from him. He wanted to visit Geisei Observatory because he would be able to get a break on the day he flew to Kochi Airport. I told him that the airport was relatively close to the observatory and that a visit was limited to a group of 5 people or more. To my surprise he came to the observatory accompanied by five beautiful stewardesses. Unfortunately, the weather was not good that night and we had to spend most of the time talking about the stars while looking at whichever stars we could see in the dome.
    Mr. M had been madly in love with the stars since his childhood and wanted to work somewhere close to space. So, he chose to become a pilot of commercial airlines. He would have wanted to become an astronaut if it was today. He told me a lot of interesting stories. Some of them were incredulous stories unthinkable in the real world. Around 1980 he was flying as a co-pilot from Hokkaido to Honshu at night. An incredible thing happened then. He saw through the cockpit window on the right side a blue disk-like object flying alongside and swiftly overtaking his plane. Mr. M thought it was obviously a big fireball and decided to report this to an observatory as soon as he landed.
    However, he found that people had already witnessed this on the ground and rumored that a UFO appeared. It was picked up by news media as the day's significant news story. Mr. M asserted that it was a meteor, but the press refused to accept it thinking the "encounter with a UFO" would be more interesting than an appearance of a mere meteor. As far as I remember, this fireball was seen by many observers in the astronomical community and the controversy was settled with a conclusion that it was a big meteor, not a UFO.
    Here is another amazing story told by Mr. M. When the world was madly excited about approaching Halley's Comet, Mr. M saw its surprisingly long tail from his plane at the highest altitude. Initially he was flying in evening twilight at an altitude near the stratosphere. As you may expect, he was secretly planning to observe Halley's Comet from an altitude higher than anybody else could. Unfortunately, the comet was seen always on the right-hand side behind him. Flying this way would never get him to see the comet until the landing. He looked a little serious and said, "This is secret." "I changed the plane's course by about 90 degrees to the right," said he in a low voice. "I took time to see Halley's Comet. Then, I returned to the earlier course." As the whole thing took just about several tens of seconds, the passengers and the ground radar would not have noticed this alteration. While seeing the distant lights around Haneda Airport approaching in the darkness, he could not stop smiling seeing these lights forever overlapping with the exceptionally beautiful image of Halley's Comet.
    Several years later, I flew to Tokyo for attending to some business. During the inflight announcement the names of the chief pilot and flight attendants were given. I heard Mr. M's name as the chief pilot. When disembarking at Haneda, remembering dearly the conversation I had had with him, I wrote on the back of my calling card: "M-san, I am pleased to have heard your name again on the flight. I am the stargazer Seki. I remember clearly the stories you told me as if it had happened just yesterday. If you can find time, would you like to visit the observatory again? The world of the stars through the telescope lens have a different charm than the one you see from the plane." I handed this card to one of the stewardesses. This led to his phone call 10 days later and I was able to welcome his group to the observatory again. Unlike the previous visit, we had good weather and they enjoyed the starry sky and Moon to their heart's content.
    Another several years have passed since. I sometimes wonder how Mr. M is doing. Probably he has retired and will be enjoying watching the stars on the ground like us. There is no end to episodes like this left behind by Halley's Comet.

To be be continued



Copyright (C) 2019 Tsutomu Seki.