Comet Hyakutake

Spectra of Comet Hyakutake were obtained at the ESO La Silla Observatory on February 29.3 UT by Klaus Simon (Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Munich, Germany) and Chris Lidman (ESO-Chile). They used the Danish 1.54-m telescope with the multi-mode DFOSC instrument and a large CCD. The slit was centred on the brightest part of the cometary coma. The frames were reduced by S. Benetti (ESO-Chile). This graphical representation is based on the combination of two 10-min exposures. They have been calibrated to show the wavelength (abscissa, in Angstrom) and relative intensity (ordinate). The spectrum covers the wavelength region 4000-8000 A with a spectral resolution of approx. 12 A.