Taken April 5th, 1997 from Middle River, Nova Scotia, Canada using a 135mm lens at f/2.8. Film was Fuji Super G+, ISO 800 exposed for 5 minutes. The camera was mounted "piggyback" on a guiding telescope which was clock driven to compensate for the earth's rotation. The dark slash marks in the lower right hand corner are fir trees in the foreground blurred by the telescope's motion as it tracked the comet.

Hale-Bopp was an interesting comet that clearly showed two distinct tails. The broad, fan-tailed whitish one is a dust tail shining by the reflected light of incident sunlight. The more interesting, tightly confined bluish tail is composed of gas. It shines under the influence of solar short wavelength ultraviolet radiation, much as the gas in a fluorescent light fixture shines.

On this date the comet was approximately 130 million miles from earth.

Use "Back" button or Return to Home