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Hyakutake (C/1996 B2)While the world was waiting for the appearance of another comet, Hale-Bopp, an unexpected but spectacular visitor passed the Earth. On January 31, 1996, Yuji Hyakutake discovers his second comet in a months time. A few days later, when its orbit had been reconstructed it became clear this comet would pass closely along the Earth on March 25, and might become a bright one. A month after the discovery, on March 1, I started looking for this comet and found it as a fuzzy and elongated patch on the predicted position. Until March 16 I was able to observe the comet regularly, but from that day till March 24 the weather was so bad that the comet was not observable. That night on March 24, a day before the comet would get closest to Earth, a big gap opened in the clouds and I could see a real comet shining brightly in the sky. The comets tail was tremendous, it stretched for some 15° across the sky and the coma was easily visible. I dragged my telescope and photographic equipment outside and started making pictures. The brightest star in this picture is Alkaid, the tail star of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. About a week later the comet had disappeared again. Mostly due to bad weather, though its brightness had dropped extremely. Nevertheless it was a fantastic encounter with my first real comet. And another one was heading toward the Sun. |
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