Here is a series of photos of Comet Hale-Bopp taken from the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, about 6 days after perihelion. The photos were taken at approximately 20:15 on 6 April HST (06:15 April 7 UT).
Watching Comet Hale-Bopp, under a palm tree at the beach. The tree is illuminated by a single high-pressure sodium lamp, located about 100 meters away. This short exposure freezes the tree, with relatively little blurring from sidereal tracking of the comet.
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Wide view of Comet Hale-Bopp, North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii.
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Here is a close-up view of the comet. The diffuse dust tail and the narrower blue ion tail are both clearly visible. The ion tail is shaped by the solar wind and points almost directly away from the Sun. The dust tail has a more curved shape, caused by radiation pressure from the force of the light that the dust particles absorb. The dust particles follow trajectories that are a combination of their orbital inertia and the outward push from the sunlight.
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Photographs by UH astronomer Richard J. Wainscoat
Creation: Fri Apr 11 18:20 1997
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