Rise And Shine, Hale-Bopp

The comet Hale-Bopp rises in the northeastern sky of Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 4:15 AM on Wednesday, March 26, 1997. Hale-Bopp last visited the skies of Earth in 2213 BC. It was a unique comet in that it actually sported three tails--one an ion tail, one a dust tail and one a sodium atom tail. Ion tails show up as blue in color. This short time-exposure view looks over houses on Brookdale Drive NE in the Northbrook II residential development. The constellation above and left of Hale-Bopp is Cassiopeia. The top object of a faint triangular shape of objects below and to the right of Hale-Bopp (just left of the trees at right) is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.