10:20 - 10:45 15 March 1996 UT
A 25cm Newtonian was used at 34x. South is up. West is to the left. A homemade, rectangular fieldstop was used in the eyepiece to block most of the eyepiece's edge-of-field aberrations.
In 1996 a great comet sped past earth. At 3:00 am local time on March 25th, after having retired under a cloudy, snow-filled sky, I woke up to a miracle - a clear sky! The sight of Comet Hyakutake with the unaided eye was awesome! I woke my wife and son and advised them to get dressed without turning on any lights. They followed my instructions exactly. I led them outside our rural home with the aid of only a dim, red light. We stood in the cold staring up at the greatest comet any of us had ever seen. We could face north and look up at the comet's huge, bright head. We could turn our backs to the great comet's head and see the monstrous, ghostly tail fading toward our southern horizon. Words cannot adequately describe the sight on that wondrous night.
10:20 - 10:45 15 March 1996 UT
A 25cm Newtonian was used at 34x. South is up. West is to the left. A homemade, rectangular fieldstop was used in the eyepiece to block most of the eyepiece's edge-of-field aberrations.
15 March 1996 UT
This was the view with tripod-mounted 20x80 binoculars. North is up. West is to the right.
8:40 20 March 1996 UT
A pair of 8x42 binoculars was used for this view. North is up. West is to the right.
3:00 25 March 1996 UT
This was the unaided eye view through thin clouds on a moonlit night. It was snowing lightly at the time, but I feared this might be my only chance to catch the comet near its closest approach to our home planet. For scale, note the "Big Dipper" asterism in this as well as the following sketch.
10:35 25 March 1996 UT
This was our best unaided eye view of the comet through a clear sky. The temperature was minus 17 degrees F. Inspired by this view, my wife wrote a poem. An excerpt from Ann Taylor's "Hairy Stars" follows:
Hyakutake,
You took my breath away,
And used it for a veil that stretched
Behind you and burned the
Starry sky with its cold grandeur.
Breathless then, I stood and stared
Finally, I understood
The awe the ancients felt
When they beheld a comet.
Solar Sketches-----------------------------------Lunar Sketches
Planetary Sketches-------------------------------Planetary Sketches - page 2
Jupiter-SL9 Sketches----------------------------Comet Sketches
Comet Hyakutake Sketches----------------------Comet Hale-Bopp Sketches
Deep Sky Sketches------------------------------Deep Sky Sketches - page 2
Rough Sketches----------------------------------Paintings
Why make sketches?-----------------------------The Art of Astronomical Sketching
Character Sketch---------------------------------Links to Other Websites
Home-made Binocular Mount-----------------Home