Hale-Bopp

The above photo was taken on March 29, 1997 at 8:30 PM from the Texas Astronomical
Society's dark sky site near Atoka, OK. It is a 2 minute exposure on a tripod-mounted
35mm camera at f/4. Star trailing due to the earth's rotation is visible, especially towards
the south, which is on the left side of the photo. The red lights in the foreground are from
the red flashlights used by astronomers to protect night vision.

This photo was taken 10 minutes before the top one. It is a zoomed-in view
(30 seconds, 200mm at f/5.6). The interesting feature in this photo is the
airplane that crossed the comet; its strobe and beacons are visible at right.