415K
Observer: Jean-Marie Will
Location: European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile
Date: February 9, 1996
These false-colour photos show the first images of comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), obtained with the DFOSC instrument at the Danish 1.54-metre telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory. This comet is expected to become quite bright when it passes near the Earth in late March 1996.
The observations were made by Jean-Marie Will, visiting astronomer from Sternwarte der Universitaet Bonn, Germany.
At the time of this observation, the comet was at a distance of 1.52 AU (227 million kilometres) from the Earth and 1.88 AU (281 million kilometres) from the Sun.
Image visualizing the bias and flat fielding processes of the 20 min V exposure of comet Hyakutake
Legend to the image:
Bias Flatfield in V
raw image of comet corrected image of comet
Comet 1996 B2 Hyakutake Home Page