Hale Bopp

First image is a 20 second exposure of Hale Bopp, made through a red filter. Exposure started at 19:42:00 EST (=00:42:00ut). Image has been dark subtracted and then false coloured using Mira's 'comet' palette.
Second image has been processed using a rotational gradient filter with rotation 10 degrees and amplification 10.
Third image is a 20 second exposure of Hale Bopp, taken through a blue filter, has been processed using a rotational gradient filter, with rotation 10 degrees, and amplification 10. Note the spiral structure that all of the professional observatories have been reporting recently... Cool!

240 Sec photo, Fuji HG800 Press, approx 2145UT + 6 min MARCH 31, 1997, Sky conditions: occasional fog.

We were experiencing about 25 mph desert winds and I was concerned about the wind effecting the steadiness of my mount while I was guiding. Fortunately, not far off from the dirt road was a dried up river bed with an embankment which was about 10 feet high. We set up in the dried river bed which shaded much of the wind.

Large scale structures

Authors: Cyril Birnbaum, Eric Frappa, Francois Colas
Location: Pic de Midi Observatory (France)
Optics: 55 cm telescope.

This image is the sum of 150 images taken with the 55 cm telescope. Each individual frame is a 4 second exposure with a R filter.
The nucleus region is widely saturated, the goal of the observation is to show the large scale structure of the coma in connection with the small field but high resolution images of the 105 centimeter telescope.
We can see a link between the dust shells of the internal coma and the "synchronic bands" in the dust tail. The image is enhanced with laplacian filter.
The median time of the exposures is March 30th, 20h30 UT.

Another shot of the Orthodox Church in Ninilchik, Alaska. It is Easter morning, a candle shines in the window, the aurora borealis is creating a halo around the church, Hale-Bopp shines overhead and Andromeda nearly touches the center cross. I don't know if I'll ever capture more in a single photograph.

Three images of the Hale Bopp comet taken on March, 30.84 U.T. near M31 in Andromeda and NGC 869/884 in Perseus. The third one shows comet Hale-Bopp setting behind the Cortina's mountains (Monte Poma gagnon).

The comet was of magnitude -1.0 with a naked eye visible ion tail of ~18 deg. and a diffuse dust tail of ~14 deg.

Another shot of the Orthodox Church in Ninilchik, Alaska. It is Easter morning, a candle shines in the window, the aurora borealis is creating a halo around the church, Hale-Bopp shines overhead and Andromeda nearly touches the center cross. I don't know if I'll ever capture more in a single photograph.

Three images of the Hale Bopp comet taken on March, 30.84 U.T. near M31 in Andromeda and NGC 869/884 in Perseus. The third one shows comet Hale-Bopp setting behind the Cortina's mountains (Monte Poma gagnon).

The comet was of magnitude -1.0 with a naked eye visible ion tail of ~18 deg. and a diffuse dust tail of ~14 deg.

This image was taken from a mountain 800 m high, near Kobe.

This is a composite of 100 -15 second exposures taken with an Apogee AP-7 CCD. The first exposure was taken on 03-30-97 at 00:54:07 UT. The images were enhanced to show the jets from the nucleus.

15 seconds of exposure (technical information on the image).

The Russian Orthodox Church of Ninilchik is a favorite subject of many a photographer. On this very clear and dark night of the 28th, the Andromeda Galaxy is clearly visible below Hale-Bopp and to the left of the right side cupola.

The sun still silhouettes the mountains at 10PM in Alaska. The comet points to the divide between the Alaskan and Aleutian mountain ranges across Cook Inlet. How many constellations and stars can you name here?

A rotational gradient filter (10 degree rotaion, amplification 4) has been applied to the 60 second exposure of the Comet.

2 minutes exposure on an equatorial platform with a stepper motor.

20 seconds of exposure.

1 minute exposure.

First image is a 180 second exposure of comet Hale-Bopp. Exposure started at 19:20 EST on 27th March (which is of course 00:20 UT on 28th March ). A 12 inch Maksutov telescope, working at a focal ratio of f5 was used with an SBIG ST8 CCD camera and a blue filter. The CCD was used in medium resolution mode, with 2 by 2 binning, giving a resultant pixel size of 18 microns. The field of view is 0.3 degrees (long axis) by 0.2 degrees (short axis). The image has been processed by subtracting a 20 by 20 median filtered masked version from the original to reveal structure in the coma.

Taken from Sierra de Enguera Mountains (763 m., 39ºN, 0,51ºW). 8 minutes of exposure (piggy-backed).

15 seconds exposure unguided, scanned at 200 dpi, This is an early morning view of Upper New York Bay, taken from Staten Island, looking North-North-East. Visible in the photo is the southern tip of Manhattan where the Hudson and East Rivers join to form the bay. The World Trade Center is visible, as well as the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges on the right, and on the left... The Statue of Liberty.

This photo was taken Wednesday March 26 at 10:05 PM local time ( 5:05 GMT 3/27) just as the Moon (three days past full) rose over the mountain. It shows Comet Hale-Bopp over Wapiti Ridge and the cattle ranches along the South fork of the Shoshone river in northwest Wyoming. It was taken from Sawmill Park on Carter Mountain, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet... the Absaroka Mountains in the background are above 12,000 feet elevation.

Three images of the Hale Bopp comet taken on March, 27.84 U.T. near M31 in Andromeda.

The comet was of magnitude -1.0 with a naked eye visible ion tail of ~18 deg. and a diffuse dust tail of ~12 deg.

6 minutes of exposure. The comet was of magnitude -1.0 with a naked eye visible ion tail of ~18 deg. and a diffuse dust tail of ~12 deg.

40 seconds of exposure. Both images are from The Holy City, at 42 km of Cody (Wyoming) (higway US 14-16-20), Shoshone National Forest. The only difference between them was that the Moon had rised in the second.

Taken from Sierra de Enguera Mountains (763 m., 39ºN, 0,51ºW). 45 seconds minutes of exposure (piggy-backed).
The author sent me this image with the following remark attached:
"There is Cassiopeia, 'something' that is M31, the comet, and... not much more."
What else could be seen?.

Taken around 22 h, local time (21 UT), from Sierra de Enguera Mountains (763 m., 39ºN, 0,51ºW). 4 minutes of exposure (piggy-backed).

3 minute exposure tracked/unguided. Despite high gusty winds there is very little tracking error. I placed a bit larger image this time, because it is fun to try and spot well known clusters in the Cassiopeia region. Even though it is hugging the horizon, M31 is also visible in the image as well.

Hi Brian,
Congratulations !


Your photo got a double Wow! at home this morning as I showed it to the girls (wife and daughter, of course), and a Big one from me as I spotted M31! This photo made Ron Balke's Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page today !

Saludos, (and Clear Skies)
Andres Valencia