The comet was opened independently of each other by two American observers - Alan Haley and Thomas Bopp. Hale spent many hundreds of hours of fruitless searching for comets, and near his home in New Mexico, he watched the already known comets when about midnight suddenly ran on an object the size of fog close to the 10.5 ball star cluster M70 in the constellation Streltsov. Hale first found that close to this cluster there are no other objects of deep space. Then he discovered that the object is visibly moved to the background stars (and hence is in the solar system), and wrote an email to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, which keeps track of astronomical discoveries.
Do Bopp was not their own telescope. He was in the nature with their friends about Stenfilda in Arizona, and observed star clusters and galaxies in the eyepiece when the telescope owned by his friend, before the eyes of Thomas promelknulo speck of light. Check with the star charts, Bopp understand that this spot is a new object, and sent a telegram there, where and Hale.
The next morning it was confirmed the opening of a new comet, which gave the name of the Hale - Bopp comet and the designation C/1995 O1. On the opening was announced in a circular number 6187 International Astronomical Union. At the opening of a comet was at a distance of 7.1 and. f. from the Sun.
Shortly surfaced earlier pictures with the comet. For example, Terence Dickinson has found a comet on a photograph made by 29 May 1995, and Robert Maknot - in the picture, made April 27, 1993, ie two years prior to the opening of a comet. At that time, its value was 18m, and the distance from the Sun - a 13.0. f.