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Nightwalker50 — Comet Hyakutake Blazes
Published: 2009-10-27 11:29:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 876; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 42
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On March 25, 1996, after a blizzard at my location, Comet Hyakutake blazes through my night sky. It was a tiny comet, but it passed over the Earth by just 9.3 million miles on its way inbound toward the Sun. The object's gas tail is very conspicuous here. The three brightest stars in the middle of the picture are of the Big Dipper's handle for comparison of the tail length. Had the Hale-Bopp comet passed as close to us, it would have illuminated our landscape as bright as the crescent Moon does!Related content
Comments: 5
Glad you approve. Though it looked its best right after a big snowstorm then.
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Nice shot! I remember being able to see this one clearly with the naked eye in my backyard--I was 12. I recall it being pretty close to the horizon and sort of a greenish color. I think somewhere around the same time that year me and my sister stayed up late to watch a meteor shower and we even saw a fireball. It freaked us out.
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The Lyrid meteors are in April (21-22), and the Perseid meteors will be wonderful to watch next year too - Aug. 12-14, as there is no Moon in the sky then. Astronomical statistics say a chunk of space rock about the size of your fist hits the Earth somewhere every 10 hrs. One the size of a refrigerator or so exploded over Utah within the past month and was recorded by night security cameras - lighting up the foreground like a close lightning bolt. The Geminid meteors are also a fine shower from Dec. 12-13 annually too. None of these meteor showers however are caused by Hyakutake.
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I saw that meteor last month--it was awesome to see!
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