It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s Hale-Bopp!Comet Hale-Bopp, believed to be one of the largest comets ever recorded, is now visible in the northeastern early morning sky.’Hale-Bopp is the largest comet we’ve seen in over 250 years,’ said Gerald Newsom, Ohio State professor of astronomy, and vice chair of the Department of Astronomy.Newsom said Hale-Bopp is currently about 125 million miles away from the earth. The closest it will come to Earth in about two or three weeks is 120 million miles away. Comets are made up of a nucleus made of ice, gas and dust, and a coma of glowing gas and dust, which makes up the familiar tail. Hale-Bopp has a nucleus that is 24 miles wide, and a coma or tail that is 900,000 miles wide.The last comet comparable to the size of Hale-Bopp was Comet De Cheseaux, which crossed the skies in 1747.Newsom said Comet Hyakutake, which appeared in the skies last spring, was not as bright or large as this year’s comet.’We used to think of comets as dirty snowballs, but now we think of them as snowy dirt balls,’ said Tom Burns, director of Perkins Observatory, of Delaware, Ohio. Burns, 44, has been a star-gazer for more than 30 years. The brightness of the comet is caused when the comet nears the sun and the gases it contains are heated, pushing the coma in the opposite direction. This produces a tail of glowing gas and dust that can be millions of miles long, Burns said.The comet was discovered in 1995 by two amateur astronomers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, when it was about 700 million miles from earth.Hale and Bopp were both using only moderate-sized telescopes when they discovered it, and the fact that they were able to see the comet at that distance meant the comet had to be very large and bright. The best time to see the comet in the morning sky is between 5 and 5:30 a.m., Burns said. Observing in open skies, away from city lights will enhance the view.The comet will be visible in the evening sky from March 22 through the end of April. The best time to see it is after 7:30 p.m.Viewing through binoculars is a great way to see the comet, Burns said. ‘Hale-Bopp has two distinct tails, and it is very rare that a comet is bright enough to see both tails through binoculars, but you can see them very clearly.’Although Hale-Bopp reaches maximum visibility around March 22, the bright glow of a nearly full moon will greatly diminish its brightness until March 24, he said.Hale-Bopp, traveling at about 25 miles per second, will not be back for 2,400 years, Newsom said. It will be closest to the sun on April 1, and it will then continue on its orbit away from the sun, slowing down over time, for about 1, 200 years (half of its orbital period).It then picks up speed and moves back towards the sun. Its orbit is a very long, thin ellipse.’If people miss this they’re missing the comet of their lifetime,’ Burns said.