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Comet Hyakutake

Notes: Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2)
3-16-1996 Little Blair Valley, CA
30 min. Fuji 400HR Film
Olympus OM1 35mm Camera 300mm lens
Piggyback on a Meade 8” LX200
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Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) is a comet, discovered on 31 January 1996, that passed very close to Earth in March of that year. It was dubbed The Great Comet of 1996; its passage near the Earth was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years. Hyakutake appeared very bright in the night sky and was widely seen around the world. The comet temporarily upstaged the much anticipated Comet Hale–Bopp, which was approaching the inner Solar System at the time.

The comet was discovered on 31 January 1996, by Yuji Hyakutake, an amateur astronomer from southern Japan. He had been searching for comets for years and had moved to Kagoshima Prefecture partly for the dark skies in nearby rural areas. He was using a powerful set of binoculars with 150 mm (6 in) objective lenses to scan the skies on the night of the discovery.
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