150K
Observers: Andy Harwood, David Fideler, Jason Cunningham
Location: Pentwater, Michigan
Date: March 27, 1996
FILM: Kodak Gold 1000 CAMERA: Olympus OM-1 on a stationary tripod LENS: 50mm at F/1.8 EXPOSURE TIME: about two minutesPhoto by Andy Harwood (feel free to reproduce, as long as you mention my name).
On the bitterly-cold morning of March 27, David Fideler, Jason Cunningham and I had a breathtaking view of comet Hyakutake from a location south of Pentwater, Michigan, a few miles inland from the Lake Michigan shore. The experience we had of viewing the comet from a dark, clear location is indescribable. The comet was about 1st magnitude, bright aqua-blue, and sported an enormous tail. Each of us could easily see 60-degrees of tail with the naked eye, and by using averted vision we were able to see about 20-degrees more beyond that (which the photos didn't capture). Altogether, we saw a whopping 80-degrees of tail arching over our heads all the way from the north pole to Virgo! I thought the prints came out beautifully and really show the comet "as we saw it" quite well.
andy harwood, harwooda@iserv.net
Comet 1996 B2 Hyakutake Home Page