The visual lightcurve of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) from 1995-1999.

The long-term brightness evolution of the great comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) presented a remarkable opportunity to study the behavior of its coma over four years. We used approximately 2200 total visual magnitudes published in the International Comet Quarterly taken from 17 observers during the period of 1995 July - 1999 September to create a secular lightcurve. In order to account for observer differences, we present a novel algorithm to reduce scatter and increase precision in a lightcurve compiled from many sources. It is implemented in a publicly available code, ICQSPLITTER. This code addresses the differences among observers by using a self-consistent statistical approach, leading to a sharper lightcurve, and improving the precision of the measured slopes. To first order, the comet's lightcurve approximately follows a r$^{-4}$ response for both pre- and post-perihelion distances. Interestingly, the pre-perihelion data are better fit with a fifth-order polynomial with inflection points at 4.0, 2.6, 2.1 and 1.1 au. We analyze these specific regions and find that they are associated with physical phenomena in the comet's evolution. Contrary to other reports, the lightcurve shows no evidence for the comet having been in outburst at discovery. Afrho values derived from the visual lightcurve data are consistent with a r$^{-1.5}$ dependence on heliocentric distance, which is similar in shape to those derived from spectroscopy and narrow-band photometry. We present correlation equations for visual magnitudes and CO and H2O production rates, which are consistent with the pre-perihelion visual magnitudes increasing almost entirely due to CO outgassing until a heliocentric distance of about 2.6 - 3.0 au. We also present two correlation equations that should prove highly useful for observation planning and data analysis, and can be generalized to be applicable to other comets.