Starship Asterisk*

Hale-Bopp was a splendid sight. Comet West (1975-76) however was brighter and larger with a multi-rayed tail and a nucleus that was visible in broad daylight as a tiny companion to the sun.

Yes, I remember it well. We drove up the road from our camp spot in Texas Flats to the Mule Canyon Ruins. There we observed Hale-Bopp from the restored kiva and toasted its return. The next night we walked from our campsite up the jeep road in Texas flats with Hale-Bopp straight ahead. Since then, we have referred to that road as Hale-Bopp Highway. - Roger Hopkins

Hale-Bopp was the reason I originally discovered APOD, in '97. Some great memories sitting out under the sky on a blanket with my then new bride, looking at the beauty of the "Great Comet."

[quote=jgalpin post_id=321931 time=1649449244]
How does one perform a hand-guided, 10 minute exposure?
[/quote]

That was the standard way of making all astronomical images until camera guided systems came along, 20 or 30 years ago. You sit at the telescope peering through an attached guidescope and keep your reference object (usually a star, but in this case a comet) centered in the cross hairs by pushing buttons on a control paddle. Not fun, and given how much less sensitive film is than CCD sensors, and how difficult stacking shorter images is with film, exposures tended to be very long.

A mere 10-minute exposure was easy compared to most targets.

[quote=jgalpin post_id=321931 time=1649449244]
How does one perform a hand-guided, 10 minute exposure?
[/quote]

Very carefully? :ssmile: But seriously, I was wondering the same thing! Presumably the comet wasn't moving very fast in the FOV.

How does one perform a hand-guided, 10 minute exposure?

[quote]APOD April 08; 2022[/quote] Do I remember, Yes I was at workn at night and had to get some parts from the parts room;! The attendant invited to go to the roof of the factory! It was a clear night; and Lo and behold there in the sky loomed the greatest sight; Hale-Bopp! The only comet I had ever seen!
[attachment=1]HaleBoppSeip_c1024.jpg[/attachment][attachment=0]Comet_Hale-Bopp_over_Pyramids_at_Giza_1997_John-Goldsmith_ESA.jpg[/attachment]

[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220408.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_220408.jpg[/img] [size=150]Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] Only twenty-five years ago, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale%E2%80%93Bopp]Comet Hale-Bopp[/url] rounded the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's night skies. [url=https://photomeeting.de/galleries/comets/content/19970407a_large.html]Digitized from[/url] the original astrophoto on 35mm color slide film, this classic image of the Great Comet of 1997 was recorded a few days after its perihelion passage on [url=https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-comet-hale-bopp/]April 1, 1997[/url]. Made with a camera and telephoto lens piggy-backed on a small telescope, the 10 minute long, hand-guided exposure features the memorable [url=http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/tail.html]tails[/url] of [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970320.html]Hale-Bopp[/url], a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail. Here, the ion tail extends well over ten degrees across the northern sky. In all, [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970328.html]Hale-Bopp[/url] was reported as visible to the naked eye from late May 1996 through September 1997. Also known as C/1995 O1, Hale-Bopp is recognized as one of the most compositionally [url=https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2106/]pristine comets[/url] to pass through the inner Solar System. A visitor from the distant [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/]Oort cloud[/url], the comet's next perihelion passage should be around the year 4380 AD. [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070331.html]Do you[/url] remember [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950820.html]Hale-Bopp[/url]?


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