My Final Hale Bopp Shots?
On April 10th I went out to see what I could get with my improved tracker.
I decided to try the Kodak 400 PPF film that I heard so much good about.
I am happy to say the it was a success, as these photos show. The original
images were about 1/2 MB, so these are quite compressed at 40K or so. This
was about a three minute exposure. I'm always amazed at the number of stars
that film picks up. Also notice the colors of the different stars, there's
quite a variety.
Hale-Bopp actually has 2 tails, as can be seen here. The fainter, blue ion tail has been eluding me photographically for a while, so I am pleased with these shots.
What is that second tail?
The second, faint blue tail is an Ion tail. These are small particles
that have been hit by sunlight and have gotten heatened up to the point
where electrons have been ripped off the atoms, emitting light in the process.
These particles are electrically charged, and glow much like a flouresent
light. It's also quite similar to the Northern lights that we see on earth.
Just another pretty face of comet Hale Bopp. That's a California Oak tree to the bottom left of the photo. The night was quite cold the night we took this. Coming soon will be photos of us huddled and bundled up as we took the photos.
Can you count all the stars in this photo?
My apologies: my scanner needs some adjusting; these photos do not appear as sharp as the photograph.
The sky was not dark to my west, as Oakland, CA lies there, with a great deal of light pollution.
If you want to see shots through the telescope, click here
