Comet Hale-Bopp

During Spring Break 1997, the wintry grey cloud cover broke over Ann Arbor, Michigan. I rushed out to the store and picked up some Royal Gold ASA 1000, loaded up my Pentax K-1000, set it on a just-out-of-the-box tripod and did a quick photography run. All my shots were made at f/2 with a standard 49mm or 50mm lens [can't remember which].

[1st Comet Pic]

The first picture was taken from behind the dark wall of an apartment complex down the street from mine. The parking lot behind the building was lighting the trees and power line. This is a 24 second exposure taken at about 8:20 pm EST on March 30, 1997.

[2nd Comet Pic]

The second picture was taken over the roof of a lit apartment building across the street from mine. It is a 30 second exposure taken at about 8:50 pm EST on March 30, 1997.

At the time, I lived near the University of Michigan Medical Center in north central Ann Arbor, so I had to deal with a great deal of light pollution. Despite all that, I achieved some rather impressive results. If you look closely, you can see both the regular particle/vapor tail and the blue ion/plasma tail.

Kosh:
"You do not understand."
The comet pictures and unquoted text of this page are Copyright © 1997 by Michael Zecca and may not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Kosh icon is Copyright © 1997 by PTEN/Warner Bros. Domestic Television.

Be seeing you!
-- Michael Zecca, starfury@eskimo.com