Alan Hale

"The Earthrise Institute is pleased to announce its inaugural educational project, entitled "Countdown to 500 Comets." The project takes its name and focus from Earthrise Institute founder and President Alan Hale's quest to observe 500 comets, a quest he began over 37 years ago. He has recently collected his 400th comet and, in his words, "I've decided to share my quest for comet number 500 with the astronomy students of the world... Students of all ages and nationalities are invited to participate in "Countdown."

The goal... is for students to observe as many of Dr. Hale's next 100 comets as they are able, either by viewing them through a telescope, and/or by taking images of them with appropriately equipped telescopic cameras.

Special awards will be presented to any student who successfully observes ten of Dr. Hale's next 100 comets.

Hale estimates that it will take five to seven years for him to collect those 100 comets, and thus there are plenty of opportunities for participation."

Hale remains active with the Earthrise Institute performing science outreach.

For example, his "In Our Skies" column appears in the Alamogordo Daily News, in which he discusses current astronomical issues.

Alan Hale (born 1958) is an American professional astronomer, who co-discovered Comet Hale–Bopp along with amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp.

Hale specializes in the study of Sun-like stars and the search for extra-solar planetary systems, and has side interests in the fields of comets and near-Earth asteroids.

He has been an active astronomer most of his life and currently serves as the president of the Earthrise Institute, which he founded, and which has as its mission the use of astronomy as a tool for breaking down international and intercultural barriers.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid in Hale's honor, 4151 Alanhale, in recognition of his numerous comet observations.

Hale was born in 1958 in Tachikawa, Japan, where his father was serving in the United States Air Force.

Four months later his father was transferred to Holloman Air Force Base outside Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Hale was raised in Alamogordo where his father retired from the Air Force and worked in civil service.

He credits several factors for inspiring his interest in science and astronomy in the 1960s: the clear night skies in Alamogordo, library books on astronomy his father gave him in the first grade, the US space program, and the original Star Trek TV series.

Hale also said that as a child he was interested in other sciences as well, and he "went through a dinosaur phase when I was in 2nd grade. I knew them all. Drove my parent nuts."

Since 1970 Hale had observed over 200 known comets, and on the night of July 22–23, 1995, after finishing his observations of periodic Comet Clark, and while waiting for periodic Comet d'Arrest to become visible above the horizon, he "decided to pass the time by observing some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius", and pointed his Meade DS-16 telescope towards globular cluster M70.

He said that he "immediately noticed a fuzzy object in the field" which had not been present when he had observed that region of the sky two weeks earlier.

After consulting his astronomical sources, and determining that the comet was likely unknown, Hale says:

"I sent an email to Brian Marsden and Dan Green at the Central Bureau... informing them of a possible comet; later, when I had verified that the object had moved against the background stars, I sent them an additional email. I continued to follow the comet for a total of about 3 hours, until it set behind trees in the southwest, and then was able to email a detailed report, complete with two positions."

Unknown to Hale, that night Thomas Bopp was observing the same region of the sky with friends near Stanfield, Arizona.

Hale graduated from Alamogordo High School in 1976, and then served in the United States Navy from 1976 to 1983.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in physics.

Following his Navy service he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) until 1986 as an engineering contractor for Allied Bendix Aerospace working on the Deep Space Network project, as well as on several spacecraft projects.

During the 1986 Voyager 2 fly-by of Uranus, he worked with the Radio Science Experiment, using the spacecraft carrier signal to deduce information about Uranus' atmosphere and rings.

After leaving the JPL, Hale enrolled in the astronomy department of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, where he earned a Master's Degree and a PhD in 1989 and 1992 respectively, both in astronomy.

In 1993 Hale founded the Southwest Institute for Space Research (SWISR), which later became the Earthrise Institute, where Hale serves as president.

Hale said "there is an entire generation that has come of age having never really seen the dark sky", so part of what he wanted to accomplish with Earthrise was "to create an environment where students could spend some nights out under a dark sky and see what it really looks like."

His doctoral dissertation was published in the January 1994 issue of The Astronomical Journal.

After completing his studies at the New Mexico State University, Hale worked at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo as its staff astronomer and outreach education coordinator.

In 1999 Hale assembled a group of American scientists, students and educators to go on a 2 week+ trip to Iran (coinciding with a solar eclipse) where they gave talks throughout the country.

Hale feels that "Science is a... universal language" and "it would be a great idea if we could use science as a tool to bring people together... to break down barriers between nations and between cultures."

Hale uses the expression 'Science Diplomacy' in this context, which he says it's possible he coined.

"The sky looks the same from Iran as it does from here in the US. It’s the same sky we study... Science does not know political boundaries."

This sentiment is reflected in the mission of his Earthrise Institute, which is "to use astronomy, space, and other related endeavors as a tool for breaking down international and intercultural barriers and for bringing humanity together."

Earthrise's inaugural educational project was announced in a press release on March 1, 2007:

In 2013 Hale said, "I refuse to say that 'I grew up there' because anyone who know me knows that I really haven’t grown up yet."

In 2019, Hale announced he was authoring a weekly educational series about the "small bodies" of the Solar System.

The series, titled Ice and Stone 2020, features three presentations about comets and asteroids – This Week in History, Comet of the week, and a Special Topic – being released each week throughout 2020.

Ice and Stone 2020 is available for free online at the websites of both the Earthrise Institute and RocketSTEM.

Hale first spotted the comet that would come to bear his name from his home in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, where the night sky is exceptionally dark.