This photo of Comet Hyakutake was taken during the 3 April 1996 total lunar eclipse. The lens was a Pentax 135mm F2.5 telephoto; film was Fuji 400. The light pollution at the photo site (Salem, CT USA) was moderate. This photo was guided piggyback on a Celestron CG-11 (which was also used that night to grab a few dozen shots of the eclipse). One problem: I forgot to switch the telescope drive from "Lunar" to "Normal". At 135mm, the guiding error is not noticeable. I did also take some photos with a 500mm lens, however the guiding errors were obvious (the photos ended up as rejects unfortunately). This photo was cropped and color adjusted (since the color balance on the print from the photo lab was way off). This is the only color shot of Hyakutake I got! After seeing the phenomenal results of color shots obtained by friends, I was sorry I didn't try any color film on Hyakutake. I am geared up for color on Hale Bopp!
