On July 23, 1995, a comet was discovered outside of Jupiter's orbit almost simultaneously by two independent observers - Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona. It was designated C/1995 01. The comet Hale-Bopp provided us Earthlings a spectacular sight during March and April of 1997. During this time, the comet made its closest approach to Earth - a little more than 120 million miles from our dear planet. Gazing up into the night sky with the comet in view caused me to reflect on the wonders and the immense size and vastness of the universe. The comet's diameter was determined to be about 40 kilometers (approximately 25 miles) in diameter and its tail extended about 80 million miles in length. As of March 1, 1999, it was about 740 million miles from Earth.
There are many images taken throughout the world of this comet (many with Earth's landscape included) and more detailed technical information available on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) web site.
Here are some of my images (three are also on the JPL web site.) The last photo below, "Missle Cloud", is not of the comet, but provided another spectacular sight in the sky for the photographer to share with you.
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| Antenna Field | The Barn | Church |
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| Silo | Reservoir | Missile Cloud |
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