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Hale Bopp below Cassiopeia

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Hale Bopp under Cassiopeia

Lake Zumbra (Victoria MN), 9:00 pm 26 March 97. Kiev-88 80mm f/2.8 4 minute tracked exposure on PMC400.

Wednesday, March 26 was a clear evening, and the first I'd been out when the temperature was above freezing! I had spent the previous month driving around looking for suitable dark sites to take pictures of the comet, and now that I was ready to actually do it I found that I was not alone.

The public takes note

On each of my secret back roads I found cars parked along the shoulder; their binocular and camera-carrying owners gazing skyward. And no wonder, this is what they saw. Hale Bopp was very high, it seemed like 45 degrees, even though I know it can't be. Its tail extended nearly to Cassiopeia, whose bright stars can be seen forming a W in the upper right part of this picture.

Stellar landmarks

Some other items of interest in this picture: a little of the constellation Perseus shows at the upper left. The tight groupings of stars in this area are the "double cluster" in Perseus.

Directly below the head of the comet, halfway to the horizon, you might find a fuzzy blob. This is the Andromeda galaxy! I don't recall if I could see it directly that night, but at a decent dark sky site it is easily visible. At 2 million light years distance, it is considered the furthest object visible to the naked eye.

The last glow of twilight lingers deceptively on the other side of the lake. The real position of the sun is to the left, below the horizon, pointed to by the tell-tail of the comet.