Hale Bopp

The mountain tops are illuminated by Tucson city lights.

Exposure time was 1 minute. The field of view is 7.5 x 5.0 degrees.

This image was processed with QMiPS32 using Larson/Sekanina algorithm to extract hidden features.

Observers: Dale Ireland
Location: Silverdale, Washington
Optics:Nikkor 58mm f1.2 Noct lens.
Exposure: 20 seconds on Fuji 800 film.
The nearly full Moon lit this landscape scene (and washed out the plasma tail). Washington State's Hood Canal is in the foreground as the comet and the Pleiades cluster hang above the Olympic Mountains.

Observers: STS-83 Crew
Location: Earth Orbit
Optics:Olympus OM-2n. 50mm/f=1.4 lens.
A 35-mm camera was used to record these time-exposed images of Comet Hale-Bopp at sunset. Note that stars show up in this image because of the more lengthy exposure time, whereas the celestial features do not show in the majority of Space Shuttle pictures focused on Earth and its horizon. As another spinoff of the more lengthy time exposure, city lights and petroleum fires are seen as distorted streaks.

Observer: Mack Frost
Location: Cody, Wyoming.
Optics:Nikon F2AS camera 24mm. Fuji 800 SuperG +.
Exposure: f/ 2.8 for forty seconds.

This photo shows a landmark mountain in the Sunlight Basin, a remote area to the northwest of Cody, WY, between the town and the eastern side of Yellowstone National Park. The peak is call "White" mountain due to the unusual white volcanic material exposed along its flanks. Unusual for THIS area, where most of the Absaroka Volcanic region rock is a kind of reddish purple in color. This mountain can be seen from the 8400-foot Dead Indian Pass vista point along the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, Wyo-296, but the highway does not go past the mountain. The Sunlight Basin is accessed by a good county gravel road just off Wyo-296. Until recently, this area was only accessable by means of a series of dirt roads, which have since been improved and even paved in the past 5 years. The basin got its name because, back in the good OLD days, it was said that nothing could get into that region except sunlight, and they were damned near right, too!
The photo was taken around 9:35pm MDT on Sunday, 4/20/97. The moon two days before full illuminated the scene, giving it a nearly daylight qualitiy. Note the bright stars of the constellation TAURUS above the horizon on the left, the Pleadies cluster in the saddle of the mountain, and, of course, the "star" of the whole show, comet Hale-Bopp riding high above everything. Above the comet lies AURIGA with its brightest star Cappella. Just behind the point of White Mountain lies PERSIUS, while the crooked "W" of CASSIOPEIA lies above the horizon on the photo's right.
Love that wide-angle lens!

Observers: Fred Stauffer
Location: Fischbach LU, Switzerland
Optics:Olympus OM-2n. 50mm/f=1.4 lens.
Exposure: 5 seconds on Kodak Royal Gold 1000.
The image was scanned by Remo Nyfeler from a 20x30cm paper print. For my eyes, it was very dark night. But with the the almost full moon, the image resulted like a daylight-photo.

Observers: Francesca Lucentini, Marco Paolo Pavese
Location: Monfrague, Italy
Optics:Nikon F4 camera 50mm AFD at f/1.4.
Exposure: 5 seconds on FUJI 400 ASA.
I'm photograph and I visit Montfrague regularly to film vultures. This is comet's year. So, I wished to sandwich my two biggest passions in a single image: Montfrague and the comet.