Explanation:
Ten short years ago,
Comet
Hale-Bopp rounded
the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's
night.
This
stunning view, recorded shortly after the comet's
perihelion passage on April 1, 1997, features the memorable
tails
of Hale-Bopp -- a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail.
Here, the ion tail extends well over ten degrees across
the northern sky, fading near the double
star clusters
in Perseus, while the head of the comet lies near
Almach,
a bright star in the constellation Andromeda.
Do you remember Hale-Bopp?
The photographer's sons do, pictured in the foreground at
ages 12 and 15.
In all, Hale-Bopp was reported as visible
to the naked eye from roughly late May 1996 through September 1997.
