This picture of Hale-Bopp is a preliminary, unprocessed, image.  Only a 
routine dark subtraction has been done on the image.  North is at the 
top and east is to the left.  (To see the effects of image processing, 
see the much improved image Hale-Bopp #3 elsewhere on this page.) 

The picture was taken at 5:57 A.M. on Tuesday, February 26th.  It was 
taken before the camera had fully cooled since sunrise was quickly 
appoaching and only limited time was available.  As a result the picture 
is much noisier than normal and it contains streaks that cannot be 
completely removed by the process of dark subtraction.  Take a look at 
the image Hale-Bopp #2 to see the effects of allowing the camera to cool 
down.

The zoomed image is the same image enlarged by a factor of 2.

Object: Comet Hale-Bopp
Telescope focal length: 500mm
Telescope aperture: 80mm
Camera: Santa Barbara Instruments ST-6
Exposure: 1s
Observer(s): Greg and Teddy Latta