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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Hale-Bopp from Indian Cove

Explanation: Good cameras were able to obtain impressive photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp when at its brightest earlier this year. In the above photograph taken April 5th, Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged from the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Forest in California, USA. A flashlight was used to momentarily illuminate foreground rocks in this 30 second exposure. Comet Hale-Bopp is still visible to the unaided eye in Earth's Southern Hemisphere , with observers there reporting it to be about 4th magnitude . The comet is now passing nearly in front of the star Sirius , and shows only a slight dust tail .

Date August 6, 1997
Credit Credit & Copyright: W. Pacholka
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.