Comet C/1995 O1 Hale Bopp

This comet is regarded as one of the grandest in more than thousend years. Its period of naked eye visibility was 15 months, an all time record. From februari till july 1997 the comet was brighter than 2nd magnitude.  From the beginning of march till the end of april the comet was well visible at the evening sky as a stunning object of 0 to -1 magnitude. The absolute magnitude (the brightness it should get at 1 AU from the sun and 1 AU from the earth) was aboud -1.2m. The brightest comet in several hundreds of years! The only misfortune for us earthlings was that the comet didn't come closer than 196 million km.

Hale Bopp (Exposure 20s) taken 10-4-1997. Bottom, a magnification of the picture above.

(Used film, 400 ASA, Lens: 50 mm)