Comets - R - Us
Hyakutake
I took these pictures of the comet Hyakutake at about 10:00 pm on March 18th, 1996.
I figured this was probably the best/last comet I would ever get to see, (of course I was wrong) so I wanted to capture it on film.
I used Kodak 1000 film with a 200mm zoom lens and 5 second to 5 minute exposures.
I think these two came out best. A long exposure didn't seem to be neccessary.
Hale-Bopp
While Hyakutake was a faint dustball you could see out of the corner of your eye, Hale-Bopp was right in front of you, saying (use your best Michael Keaton voice) "Hey, How ya doin?"
Although much brighter than Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp had a much shorter visible tail.
I took this picture of Hale-Bopp at about 7:00 pm on April 22nd, 1997.
I used Kodak 400 film with a 200mm zoom lens and let the camera determine the exposure (about 5 seconds).
I took this picture of Hale-Bopp at about 4:00 am on March 13th, 1997.
I used Kodak 100 film with a 200mm zoom lens and 10 second to 1.5 minute exposures.
The 100 speed film was obviously not fast enough.
NASA's Night of the Comet page contains information about Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake and comets in general.
As a comet passes by, this page is updated with day-to-day news and images sent in by astronomers and photographers from around the world.
All comet pictures were taken in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA
Location: 42.30 N, 71.43 W
Leonid Meteor Shower
I took this picture of the Leonid meteor shower on November 18, 2001 at about 4:30am local time.
Note the pair of parallel lines with regularly space dots, running perpendicular to the meteor steaks.
I believe this was caused by the running lights of a passing jetliner.
The meteor shower picture was taken in Franklin, Massachusetts, USA
Location: 42.1 N, 71.4 W
Partial Solar Eclipse
Steve Bairos took this picture of a partial solar eclipse on February 26th 1998.
The picture was taken through a window, causing the interesting double image.
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