- The comet
Comet Hyakutake from Waltham, MA,
very near maximum. The skies close to Boston are not the
best to observe a comet, but in this photo you can see a
well developed tail and details inside the bright coma.
This shot was taken with an f/5.6 200 mm objective, 30
seconds exposure using KodakColor ASA 1000 film.
The coma (literally, the hair
of the comet in Greek) is formed by the gas and dust
ejecta from the nucleus (mostly sublimated H20
ices), and it is developed during the cometary passage
closer than 3 AU from the Sun. The coma glows with
scattered Sun light and some line fluorescence. Here the
picture has been enhanced to show the detailed shape of
the coma.
It's not a junkyard. It's the front
lawn of my friends,
Dave and
Cindy , in Waltham, MA.
You can see the neighboring trees silhouetted against the
bright Boston skies, with Hyakutake hanging just up
and slightly to the left of Polaris. This shot was taken
with an f/2.8 24 mm objective, 30 seconds exposure with
flash, using KodakColor 1000 ASA film.