I recently located a pencil drawing of Comet Hale-Bopp in one of old observing
notebooks and decided to reinterpret my hasty sketch using the Photoshop airbrush.
The drawing was made using Tim Puckett’s 24″ reflector with a 55mm Plossl (~90x)
while the comet was drawing close to the horizon. Despite the comet’s low elevation,
I noted a dust tail about five degrees long and a four degree ion tail. The
pseudo-nucleus was almost as bright as Alpha Aurigae (Capella)!
The coma displayed three prominent hoods. The innermost hood appeared to an
astonishing “geyser” jetting from and curving around the nucleus . I can only hope
that the drawing comes close to capturing this amazing feature (I almost named the
sketch “A Bad Drawing of a Great Comet”).
The original drawing was made on the evening of March 29th, 1997.
Dave Riddle
Smyrna, Georgia USA
Dave,
Very impressive rendering! The pseudo-nucleus, coma, and hoods blend together well. That must have been an interesting observation. I have read reports about and seen sketches of parabolic hoods but have yet to observe the phenomenon myself. Nice job.
Michael Rosolina
Friars Hill, WV USA
Great sketch Dave! I was working up in northeastern Kentucky when Hale-Bopp paid us a visit. Unfortunately I did not have a telescope with me at the time. Thanks for sharing this observation!
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL