Starship Asterisk*

Comet Hale Bopp Over Indian Cove

Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, was quite a sight. In the above photograph taken on 1997 April 6, Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged from the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Park in California, USA. A flashlight was used to momentarily illuminate foreground rocks in this six minute exposure. An impressive blue ion tail was visible above a sunlight-reflecting white dust tail. Comet Hale-Bopp remained visible to the unaided eye for over a year before returning to the outer Solar System and fading. As Comet ISON approaches the Sun this week, sky enthusiasts around the Earth are waiting to see if its tails will become even more spectacular than those displayed by Comet Hale-Bopp.

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The dark "shadows" of the rocks are of course caused by the camera tracking the sky which results in the ground appearing to move, although that effect is lessened by the momentary illumination of the rocks. Strangely, the shadows have been removed from the image on his website even though the description claims that the photo is unedited. I seem to recall some strange edges on Wally's previous work but never understood why they looked strange. There's probably something similar going on. I actually prefer the dark shadows over the cosmetic edits.

geckzilla wrote:
The dark "shadows" of the rocks are of course caused by the camera tracking the sky which results in the ground appearing to move, although that effect is lessened by the momentary illumination of the rocks. Strangely, the shadows have been removed from the image on his website even though the description claims that the photo is unedited. I seem to recall some strange edges on Wally's previous work but never understood why they looked strange. There's probably something similar going on. I actually prefer the dark shadows over the cosmetic edits.

Any conspiracy nut would immediately realize that the dark shadows indicate that this was done in a Hollywood sound studio.

For Wally a little airbrushing certainly qualifies as unedited and if I had to pick a favorite of his works this would be it.

Comet Crazy!!!!!!

Must be Comet week....we have a Comet fixation....

Nice Picture!!!

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Boomer12k wrote:Comet Crazy!!!!!!

Must be Comet week....we have a Comet fixation....

Nice Picture!!!

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We've had comets featured for six of the past seven weekends now.

Topical, since we have an embarrassment of riches of the comet variety these days.

owlice wrote:
Topical, since we have an embarrassment of riches of the comet variety these days.

If comet ISON fizzles after Thanksgiving there will be an embarrassment of another sort.

http://www.pbs.org/program/comet-encounter/

Well, no. IF it fizzles, then it will just be another turkey that has come and gone, in keeping with the season. But IF it turns out really good, then we'll just gobble it up, also keeping with the season.

Is the comet Half FULL, or Half EMPTY???


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