For Hale Bopp, a 1997 composition, see Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp

Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp

Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp op. 36 are two independent compositions of Graham Waterhouse for string orchestra, which were published together in 1998 by Hofmeister, Leipzig. Celtic Voices was written in 1995, Hale Bopp was written in 1997 inspired by Comet Hale-Bopp, and scored for an additional boy...

Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) was perhaps the most widely observed comet

Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

 of the 20th century, and one of the brightest seen for many decade

Decade

A decade is a period of 10 years. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek dekas which means ten. This etymology is sometime confused with the Latin decas and dies , which is not correct....

s. It was visible to the naked eye

Naked eye

The naked eye is a figure of speech referring to human visual perception unaided by a magnifying or light-collecting optical device, such as a telescope or microscope. Vision corrected to normal acuity using corrective lenses is considered "naked"...

 for a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811.

Hale–Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995, at a great distance from the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

, raising expectations that the comet would brighten considerably by the time it passed close to Earth.