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| Comets - Visitors from Outer
space
In the past years we are fortunate to have the opportunity to see the return of Comet Halley(85/6), the appearance of bright Hyakutake Comet C/1996 B2 and Comet Hale-Bopp C/1995 O1. I also have a glimpse of Comet William (98) while it flared up to mag 3.0 for a brief period near Sirius. Except for Comet Hyakutake,
all comet photographs were taken using SLR camera on fixed tripod with
a fast film. Comet Hyakutake was shot with camera piggyback on my C5+ tracking
the stars. This allow me to have ~ 2 minutes exposure through my
study window! Halley's Comet was shot in Changi Point with the then
popular fast film - Kodak ASA 1000.
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Halley's Comet in the Constellation of Scorpius -
Spot the comet which appears like a smeared light in lower left center of the frame. On the top left corner or near the 'sting' of the scorpion you can find M7 - Galactic cluster particially resolved into stars of mag 7+. Halley's next return will occur 76 years later or the year 2061!
After a spell of bad weather, finally one evening I spotted Bopp - Hale near the western horizon. I went back into the house, picked up my tripod and camera and ran the few hundred meters to the nearby school compound. I took a couple shots ( 20~30 second exposure) before it disappeared into the horizon.
