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Observers: Alessandro Dimai, Giuseppe Menardi, Diego Gaspari
Location: Col Druscie Observatory, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Date: February 18, 1997

Three images of the comet Hale Bopp taken with a Takahashi 102 mm f/6 (first image), exp. 7', 300 mm lens f/2,8 (second image), exp. 4' and 28 mm lens f/2.8 (third image), exp. 2' (Kodak Express Gold 400 II hyper.) The comet was of magnitude 0.8 with a naked eye visible ion tail of ~10 deg. and a diffuse dust tail of ~4 deg.

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Observer: Bill Schwittek
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Date: February 18, 1997

Astro-Physics 155mm f/7 at prime focus
Fuji 400 Super G+ print film-no hyper
10 minutes exposure
Tracked on comet head with ST-4 guider
Negative scanned directly to JPG image file (no print)

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Observer: Arto Oksanen
Location: Sirius, Finland
Date: February 18, 1997 03:28, 04:30 UT

First image was taken 0328UT with 500 mm telephoto + ST7 CCD, unfiltered 15s exposure. The second image was taken at 0430UT with wide angle lens + ST7 (the field is about 10x15 deg) on brightning morning sky. North is up on both.

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Observer: Herman Mikuz
Location: Crni Vrh Observatory, Slovenia
Date: February 18, 1997 03:56 UT

Wide-field image of comet Hale-Bopp, taken in the light of singly ionized water molecule (H2O+), centered at 620nm (FWHM=10nm). Image taken with 2.8/180mm lens, covers the field of 3.8x2.5 deg. About 7 deg long ion tail is clearly visible. North is at the top, East to the left.

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Observer: Pedro Re
Location: Portugal
Date: October 1996 - February 1997

All images were obtained from central Portugal with a C14 and HISIS22 CCD Camera.

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Observer: Pedro Re
Location: Portugal
Date: February 18, 1997 06:03 UT

CCD/Imager         : HISIS22 CCD CAMERA
Telescope/Lens     : MEAD2045 F/6.3
Exposure Time      : 150Sec 5x30Sec Addition rgradient 0 15
Binning            : 2x2

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Observer: Pedro Re
Location: Portugal
Date: February 18, 1997 06:03, 06:40 UT

All images were obtained with a C14 and a Mead2045. Total integration times varied from 2.5 to 5 min. Time (middle of the integration is given- UT). Each image is the result of the addition of 5 different exposures.

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Observers: Alberto Quijano Vodniza, Jose Alonso
Location: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Date: February 18, 1997 09:29:46, 09:46:12 UT

First image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 5 inch, F10 reflector. 20 sec exposure. The field of view is 23.1 X 17.4 arc min. The image is unprocessed. Second image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 16 inch, F10 reflector. .70 sec exposure. The field of view is 7.3 X 5.5 . The image is unprocessed.

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Observer: Mark Philips
Location: Near Nashville, Tennessee
Date: February 18, 1997 09:45 UT

Image taken with an ancient Konica FP fully manual body with a Konishiroku 135mm f3.5 lens. Kodak Royal Gold 1000 taken at 3min. My mount is a motorized Edmund Scientific reflector mount.

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Observers: Tony Alonso, Sharon Faris
Location: Estill Springs, Tennessee
Date: February 18, 1997 10:00-10:30 UT

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Observer: Ian Griffin
Location: Astronaut Memorial Planetarium & Observatory, Cocoa, Florida
Date: February 18, 1997 10:05-10:50 UT

First image is a 300 second exposure made using a 178mm f2.5 Aero Ektar lens. Detector was an SBIG ST8 CCD camera, working in medium resolution mode. Image size approximately 5 degrees square (I haven't worked this out yet!) Image has been flat fielded, and gamma and contrast scaled using mira. The image has also been given a false colour pallete. Second image is a 600 second exposure, same instrumental set up as above. Third image is a 60 second exposure of Comet Hale Bopp made with a 12 inch Maksutov, working at f5. Image taken through a red filter (wratten 25). Image has been gamma and contrast scaled.

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Observer: Marcus Featherston
Location: Panama City, Florida
Date: February 18, 1997 10:30 UT

1: 35 mm lens f/4, 30 second exposure
2: 70 mm lens, f/4, 40 second exposure

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Observers: Nyssa Collins, Tony Collins
Location: Burlington, North Carolina
Date: February 18, 1997 10:30 UT

Hale-Bopp as seen by children. The comet has definately become prominent enough to be seen and appreciated by non-veteran sky watchers. After showing Nyssa and Tony Collins (ages 7 and 11) the comet through 16x80 binoculars, they drew the attached pictures. They both were able to see the tail without optical aid. I realize that these pictures are not your standard fare, but I thought you might be interested. It is exciting when nature provides a spectacle that can capture the attention of the young!

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Observer: David Lynch
Location: Carter's Lake, Georgia
Date: February 18, 1997 10:45-11:20 UT

Comet Hale-Bopp in early sun rise a top Carter's lake damn Georgia. 30 second exposure using Nikon 50mm F1.4 on Fuji Super G 800. Second image is Comet Hale bopp crossing the milky way with the N.A. nebula. 3 minute expouse using Nikon 50mm F1.4 at f2.8 on Fuji Super G 800 Minus Violet filter used.

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Observer: Francis Graham
Location: Christine Alley Observatory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date: February 18, 1997 11:30 UT

Sketch of Comet Hale-Bopp, 16 cm. f/15 refractor, 12 mm ocular.

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Observer: James Foster
Location: Near Red Rock State Park, California
Date: February 18, 1997 13:10 UT

This is a cropped picture through a 500mm Genesis 4" Refractor at F/5 covering about 3.7' x 2.4'. This was a 15 minute exposure taken on Hypered PPF 400, 35mm film. The negative was developed normally in C-41 and scanned on Kodak Photo-CD. To get the most amount of detail from the dust & ion portions of the comet's tail(s) I processed the blue and red channels through an unsharp mask and shifted the highlighted color region with the hue/saturation functions in photoshop 3.0.4. The image was then color balanced to show a neutral black backround. Note the delicate tendrills along the beginning portion of the ion tail.

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Observer: Paul Mortfield
Location: Henry Coe State Park, California
Date: February 18, 1997 13:50 UT

Taken with a 50mm f/1.4 Kodak ASA 200 slide film. 25 sec.

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Observer: Jim Powers
Location: Half Moon Bay, California
Date: February 19, 1997

This photo was taken about one hour before sunrise with Fuji 400 film exposed for five minutes. Note the straight blue tail which is composed of ionized molecules and the irregular white debris cloud which is directed away from the sun.

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Observer: Siebren Klein
Location: Eindhoven, Portugal
Date: February 19, 1997 06:00 UT

Image taken from my bathroom in a city with 135 mm lens on ST4, 6x 30 sec.

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Observers: Alberto Quijano Vodniza, Jose Alonso
Location: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Date: February 19, 1997 09:40-09:48 UT

The first image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 5 inch, F10 reflector. 10 sec exposure. The field of view is 23.1 X 17.4 arc min. The second image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 5 inch, F10 reflector. 10 sec exposure. With RED FILTER . The field of view is 23.1 X 17.4 arc min. The third image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 5 inch, F10 reflector. 10 sec exposure. With GREEN FILTER . The field of view is 23.1 X 17.4 arc min. The image is unprocessed. The fourth image was taken with a ST-6 CCD camera through a 5 inch, F10 reflector. 10 sec exposure. With BLUE FILTER . The field of view is 23.1 X 17.4 arc min.

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Observer: Ian Griffin
Location: Astronaut Memorial Planetarium & Observatory, Cocoa, Florida
Date: February 19, 1997 10:11 UT

First image is a 60 second exposure of Comet Hale Bopp made with a 12 inch Maksutov, working at f5. Image taken through a red filter (wratten 25). Image has been gamma and contrast scaled. Second image is a version of the above image with a false colour pallete The third image shows the jets of Hale Bopp, this time made from a 30 second exposure of the comet through a Lumicon Swann Band Filter (Band Pass 494-523nm). The image was processed by subtracting a 10 by 10 median filtered version from the original.

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Observer: Uwe Heine
Location: Burlington, North Carolina
Date: February 19, 1997 10:15 UT

Hale-Bopp as seen through 16x80 Binoculars. This is a pencil drawing that was digitized and color-reversed. The first draft was done while observing (unlike my last drawing which was from memory) so the starfield is fairly accurate. The comet was approximately 0.9 mag.

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Observer: Bob Yen
Location: Mojave Desert, California
Date: February 19, 1997 12:56 UT

First image is a telephoto shot, using a 6x7 camera & AstroPhysics 610mm/6 APO refractor (~ the same field of my 300mm f1.5 Schmidt Camera, at twice the FL). Note the broad fan-like dust-tail (with faint outer extension). The ion tail consists of 2 sub-tails (*forked*, barely separable), and surrounding needle-fine streamers. Note the nearby deep-sky object NGC6940 (open cluster). The PhotoCD scan was biased to bring out outer tail (shadow detail). The negative shows 2 strong jets, each associated with the respective ion-tail and dust-tail. The second image is a telephoto shot, using a 6x7 camera & 300mm/4 lens (the same field of an 150mm lens, 35mm format). Same notes as for 610mm telephoto shot, except the entire tail length is visible. It reaches the nebulosity along the spine of Cygnus, and I measure at least 11 deg. However, due to *extinction* by Milky Way, the tail could be longer. Note how the outer ion tail *fans* out. Finally, note the various deep sky objects in Cygnus (open clusters), particularly the (faint) eastern portion of Veil Nebula (NGC 6960). A portion of the western portion (NGC 6979) is also visible (faint).

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Observer: Bob Yen
Location: Mojave Desert, California
Date: February 19, 1997 13:14 UT

This is an entire 5.5" Schmidt-Camera 35mm frame (6.1 x 9.2 deg), bit wider than the view of a 7x50 binocular. The panchromatic TP2415 response w/ hi-contrast development in D-19, brings out the low contrast features (dust tail), and enhances the highlight detail (nucleus is *blown out*). The color film *spectrally* dilineates the ion tail (blue) and dust tail (yellow). Also, the neg shows a respective strong jet for both the ion tail and dust tail. Nuclear jetting (highlight detail) is not seen in the image, due to PhotoCD scan *biased* to bring out outer tail (shadow detail).

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Observer: Richard Saunders
Location: Mission Viejo, California
Date: February 19, 1997 13:15 UT

OM1, Fuji 400 Super HG, 200 mm f5.6, 1 min, piggy backed on Celestron Ultima 8.

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Observer: Mitsuya Saeki
Location: Kami-cho, Hyogo-pref., Japan
Date: February 19, 1997 20:00 UT

This image of the comet Hale Bopp taken with a Tokina 300 mm len s f2.8 , expose 10' (Fuji800 SG).