Hale Bopp

Hale-Bopp at Auriga. The sky was far from clear. The atmosphere had almost reached dew point and scattered yellow light from the neighbour street lamps in a golden haze.
This image was published at NASA's page by Ron Baalke.

This image is a mosaic of four 40 second exposures. Hale-Bopp is under Auriga, at right. Geminis and Canis minor are at center. Betelgeuse shines over a tree, under Geminis.

Observer: Tim Forrest
Location:Croatan National Forest, Newport, North Carolina
Optics:50 mm f/2.0
Exposure: 35 seconds on KODAK Royal Gold 1000.
Comet set over Croatan National Forest reflects in Broad Creek, Newport, NC. Conditions were very clear down to the horizon ( unusual for this W/NW horizon) with winds SW at 15mph. The tiny turquoise dots seen in the tree line below the comet but above the creek are "lightning bugs" (also known as fireflies or glow worms). There were many of them flittering about this evening. Look about half way down the trunk of the trees in the foreground (closest to the creek bank) and you should see the tiny turquoise colored specks (a detail is shown). After you see the first ones you will find them about the same height across the width of the photograph. Some are more faint than others.

Observer: Tim Forrest
Location:Croatan National Forest, Newport, North Carolina
Optics:135 mm f/2.0.
Comet set over Croatan National Forest reflects in Broad Creek, Newport, NC. Some fireflies can be seen, one directly below the comet in the tree line,also, a group of six or seven further to the right, and a couple to the far left border, middle of the picture. The two white specks in the bottom third of the photo are stars reflecting in the creek.

Observer: Tim Forrest
Location:Croatan National Forest, Newport, North Carolina
Optics:135 mm f/2.0
Exposure: 25 seconds on KODAK Royal Gold 1000.
Comet set over Croatan National Forest.

Observer: Steve Dunn
Location:Cape Canaveral Air Force Space and Missle Museum, Florida
Optics:Canon FTQL 50 mm f/1.8.
Exposure: 30 seconds on Fujicolor 400 film (flash).
Image taken at 21:10 on April 30th. This is a Mercury Redstone on Launch complex 5 within the Cape Canaveral Air Force Space and Missle Museum. This is the same launch vehicle America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard, rode into space at 0934, May 5, 1961.
(bigger version).

Observer: Allen Bell
Location: Wells, Maine
Optics:Nikon F3 using a 55mm F 1.4 Nikkor lens.
Exposure: 10 to 20 seconds on Fujicolor 800 FG Print film pushed to 3200.
Taken on April 29, 1997 between 8:45 and 9:30 EDT.

Observer: Michael Horn
Location: Lake Samsonvale, Brisbane, Australia
Optics:50mm f/1.4.
Exposure: 15 seconds on Fuji G-800 (tripod).
Me and Comet Hale-Bopp at 6:32pm AEST.

Observer: Tim Forrest
Location:Newport, North Carolina
Optics:50 mm f/2.0
Exposure: 35 seconds on KODAK Royal Gold 1000.
Comet Hale-Bopp C/1995 O1 reflects in the east prong of Broad Creek in Newport, NC. The Croatan National Forest is in the background of the opposite creek bank.

Observers: David McDavid
Location: Limber Observatory, Pipe Creek, Texas
Optics:Photometrics CCD camera (Thomson 512 chip) on the 0.4 m telescope at Limber Observatory.
This pseudocolor image is a composite of six 90 s exposures of the inner 7 arcmin of the coma of Comet Hale-Bopp, taken in blue light (Johnson B filter with polarizers). North is up and east is left.

Observers: Phil Fleming
Location: Very Large Array Radio Telescope, New Mexico
Optics:Nikon F4 camera 16mm AFD at f/2.8.
Exposure: 30 seconds on Tmax 3200 (fill flash).

Observers: Francesca Lucentini, Marco Paolo Pavese
Location: Genoa, Italy
Optics:Nikon F4 camera 16mm AFD at f/2.8.
Exposure: 20 seconds on Kodak Gold 1000 ASA.

Observers: Eric Rosen
Location: Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Optics:Nikon 5005 35-70mmF3.3 lens set at 70mm. Kodak Gold Max 800 ASA film.

Observers: Eric Rosen
Location: Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Optics:Nikon 5005 35-70mmF3.3 lens set at 35 mm.
Exposure: Kodak Gold Max 800 ASA film.

Ion tail is still visible.

Observers: Eric Rosen
Location: Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Optics:Pentax P30T 50mm F2.8 lens.
Exposure: 30 and 20 seconds on Fujicolor 1600 film.

My best pictures so far. All photographs were taken at Saguaro National Park west section near Tucson, Arizona. The originals look muchg better than the scanned images. A fill flash was used to highlight the cactus.

Living in Arizona I thought it would be perfect to have the signature cactus of the old southwest in a photo with the great Hale-Bopp comet of 1997. As the saguaro stands centinal over the sonoran desert of the southwest and in Arizona, the great celestial object of the century is wisking by while we are about to bid farewell to the largest comet of the century. Photo was taken with a Pentax P30T 50mm F2.8 using Fugicolor 1600 print film. A flash was used to highlight the saguaros in the foreground.

Observers: Jeremy Seftor
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Optics:Olympus OM1n with a 35mm zuiko lens.
Exposure: Fuji 800 super G film was exposed for 15 seconds.
This house is an historic landmark in downtown Anchorage. Foreground illumination is from streetlights. The comet has become decidedly softer and less distinct from our vantage.

Now that the negative effect of moonlight is passed we have another uncompromising fact of nature to deal with. In our northern latitudes the sun's glow lights the horizon nearly all night. This shot taken close to 1:00AM April 27th demonstrates our predicament.

In January and February I bragged about the advantages of our long dark nights in Alaska. Today the opposite is true. Even near 1:00AM local time the skies are too bright for a clear view of Hale-Bopp's ion tail. Another new development this week was that the comet, at less than 30 degrees declination, set below the horizon for the first time since mid February. For we Alaskans the show is nearly over and views like the one captured in this picture will be left to our memories and our photographs.

Here is a very interesting image, showing how fan-like the ion tail has become, including kinks & wild striations. The explanation is the wild equatorial solar winds, scientists have been predicting in coming days.

This image was taken from a mountain 800 m high, near Kobe. Guiding with a Takahashi type-I mount (no tach).

Camp Comet

Observers: Dewey Vanderhoff
Location: Shoshone River, Wyoming.
Optics:Nikon F2AS camera 35mm.
Exposure: f/ 2.8 for forty seconds on Fuji SuperG 800 film.

This photo was taken from Boulder Creek along the South Fork of the Shoshone River in northwest Wyoming , as Hale-Bopp was setting over the ramparts of Ishawooa Mesa. My friend Kent Houston's VW Vanagon with roof raised makes for a great comet watching base camp and bierstube.

I lit the tree with a weak flashlight from the camera position, and used my much stronger daylight-filtered flashlight to paint in the van from off camera.

Back to photographing Hale-Bopp from the dark side of the Moon , it is obvious that the comet's tails have evolved a great deal recently. Visually, the blue gas tail is getting very elusive...it can only be seen with averted vision except under exceptionally dark skies. And we have some of the darkest skies in the Lower 48 at our disposal, here in the nether reaches of Wyoming.

The bright dust tail seems to have actually grown in length this week ( contrary to other recent reports ). We estimated it Saturday night April 26 at a good 18 degrees. And it certainly is curving more. In my opinion, the dust tail is actually more photogenic than it was ten days ago.