Comet Hale-Bopp Observation

Our first act in connection with Comet Hale-Bopp was studying the ephemeris for Comet Hale Bopp by H. Mikus. We took a sky map and marked the positions of Comet from December 1996 till May 1997. From ephemeris we concluded Comet will be the brightest (-1,8 Mag) between March 26th-30th We equiped ourselves for observations of Comet with a telescope, binoculars and some cameras.

Our first observation of Comet was held on March 26th in the village Naklo from 7 to 9 pm. The weather was unpleasant: windy, cold, and partialy cloudy. We used our 12cm Tasco telescope and a wide area ocular. It was our first meeting with Comet and we were very enthusiastic. We also took some pictures as we had prepared our camera for long exsposition times earlier. Unfortunately, we had problems with the camera stand, so the pictures are not clear.

Next day we went to Velika Plešivica a hill about 350 m above sea level. The weather was ideal for observations.

We observed the Comet with two different binoculars. We noticed the difference while using them. The 8x50 binocular collects much more light than a 8x30 one does, so the picture of Comet is brighter.

We also took some pictures with our camera. It was fixed. We used the 400 mm teleobjective. Times of exposure varied from 5 s to 120 s. We used Kodak professional 400 ASA film. You can see some of these photos in the gallery. All the photos did not succed. The time of exposure was too long and because of the Earth rotation the points changed into to the lines. They are also interesting for us.

Till now we have not taken any photos with a telescope as we can not fix the camera on it in the way that the picture of the Comet can appear in the film. But we are working hardly on it and you will see our results soon.

More pictures in gallery