Colour Photo of Comet Hyakutake

This beautiful colour photo of Comet Hyakutake was made by Peter Staettmayer, Director of the Munich Public Observatory (Volkssternwarte), from his private observatory in Herrsching at the Ammersee, some 30 km southwest of Munich.

It was obtained at 00:45 UT on March 20, 1996, with a flat-field camera (aperture 20 cm; focal length 78 cm). The exposure was made on hypersensitized Scotch 400 film and lasted 15 min.

It is available as [GIF,232k] and in a smaller version ( [GIF,57k] ).

This photo may be reproduced, if credit is given to the European Southern Observatory and Peter Staettmayer (Munich Public Observatory).