Comet Inspiration

Comet Hale-Bopp: Times of Inspiration

Some of my most inspiring photographic moments were in the Winter of 1997 taking pictures of Comet Hale-Bopp. Comet Hale-Bopp was the talk of the astronomical world. Having an interest in astronomy, I took about five-hundred pictures of this glorious thing while withstanding very cold temperatures and high winds. This first attempt at photography led me into landscape photography.

This image of Comet Hale-Bopp was taken on April 1, 1997. A snowstorm on April Fool's Day produced two feet of snow, making this a great night to take pictures of the comet. It was twenty degrees and the wind chill was around ten. In late March and early April the comet was at Perihelion (closest) to the Sun making it at its brightest. It was timed expose at about twenty seconds using a Pentax K-1000 camera, 50mm lens, Fuji Super G+ 800 speed film, tripod, cable release, and meticulously cleaned in Adobe Photoshop.

A little about the history of Comet Hale-Bopp: Astronomers believe that Comet Hale-Bopp came from the Oort Cloud or possibly near the planet Neptune. The Oort Cloud is a vast cloud of dust, rock, and ice that surrounds our solar system like a halo. This cloud came into being along with the rest of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. Comet Hale-Bopp last passed Earth's way during the time frame of tremendous advancement and upheaval throughout the ancient world. The comet paid its last visit during the period of Great Pyramid building in Egypt as well as the construction of the Stonehenge circle on England's Salisbury Plains. Its previous visit to Earth came at a time when many civilizations had a major preoccupation with understanding and controlling the heavens. The next visit is in about 4000 years.

Steve 2/01/02