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Inspirational Interloper

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It's Holy Week in the month of March, 1997 (March 27th - PM), and in the very small dark window between the end of dusk and moonrise, Comet Hale-Bopp bears a maximum of contrast in my northwestern sky. It decorated the night sky of Earth for months even from well over 100 million miles away, and inspired the Heaven's Gate cult in California to commit mass suicide. Here, five days before perihelion, it is an transient interloper just as a train is on a local railroad track at the bottom of the picture. Now, the comet continues on its way out to aphelion some 360 AU's from the Sun, not to return again until near the year 5,400 A.D. When will another comet compare or surpass this one in brightness, displaying a pretty blue gas tail separated by its greater one of dust? The picture is comparable to a naked eye view, taken with just a 50mm lens at f. 1.9 for 25 seconds. The rather fuzzy star shortly below its bright head is actually the galaxy M-31.
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homicidal45's avatar
Very well taken, lovely shot.
Rob