Professional astronomer Dr. Alan Hale visited the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center on May 26,1997. As part of his visit, he gave a series of one hour talks about astronomy, the universe and the comet Hale-Bopp. Afterwards, he answered questions and signed autographs on photographs of comet Hale-Bopp as seen over Kennedy Space Center taken by astrophotographer John W. Sigh Jr. The photograph to the left shows Dr. Alan Hale (second from the right) after one of these lectures with his son (right) and astrophotographer, John W. Sigh Jr. (left).

Early in his career, Dr. Alan Hale had been trying to discover a comet. For over 15 years he tried before finally giving up. At the time he co-discovered comet Hale-Bopp, he was taking photometry readings on two known comets to calculate their magnitudes (brightness). After completing his data collection on one of these comets, he found he had "an hour to kill" before the next comet came over his house (some people live in just the right spots. A true backyard astronomer, except he was in his front yard at the time). This was when he set up his telescope to view M70 and noticed a fuzzy spot nearby that shouldn't have been there. The rest, as they say, is history. Isn't it ironic that sometimes when you are not looking for something, you find it.