Shuttle Telescope Turns Its Lens to Comet; Glare Threatens Effort

Using an ultraviolet telescope, the space shuttle Discovery’s astronauts beamed down faint, fuzzy pictures of the Hale-Bopp comet Saturday.

It’s the first time the $500,000 telescope has flown in space.

If everything works, the telescope will provide the first complete, head-to-tail ultraviolet images of the comet, scientists said. Ultraviolet rays are invisible from Earth because of the distorting effects of the atmosphere.

The receding comet is so close to the sun as seen from Earth that the astronauts had to use the space shuttle’s 50-foot robot arm to shield the small telescope from glare.

They hung the robot arm overboard near the side hatch window--the only window without ultraviolet protection--and then set up the telescope inside the cabin.

Astronaut Stephen Robinson reported that the robot arm shaded the telescope from the sun, but a tremendous amount of light was being reflected off Earth.

Too much glare of any sort would make it difficult if not impossible for Robinson to track Hale-Bopp and collect good data.

The comet would have been closer if Discovery had flown last month as planned. The mission was bumped to make room for the makeup flight of shuttle Columbia’s aborted science mission.