[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Hale/Bopp photos
Well, I developed two rolls of film this afternoon which included the 3
exposures I made of comet Hale/Bopp with my 4 inch telescope. With 20/20
hindsight, I wished I made my exposures with the 10 inch instead. The image
is still quite small with the 4 inch and not very impressive. The tail is
very short and very broad...seems like it's going around the nucleus for
almost 270 degrees...not an exact measurement though. The tail length that
you see with your binoculars is just about what I get on film ...no hidden
details yet. It seems like 4 or 5 small jets are active around most of the
comets circumference. I was hoping for a trace of a thin whispy tail to show
up from the exposure, but it didn't. I guess it's still too early. I made a
quick look for any meteors on the negatives, but didn't see any. I wasn't
very thorough in this just yet...I will do that later...still got very little
sleep today...wife and daughter wanted me to do various things...which I did.
Oh! for those who are interested...I made a 20 minute exposure of the
comet...I guided on the comet. I was under the impression that I could guide
on the stars still and not notice any trailing. But the stars did do some
short trailing...good thing I guided on the comet as always. Just throwing
that in for others to consider when they take photos of HB. It's been
seemingly stationary for so long that I just assumed to treat it like a
"motionless" star.
George Z.