The near-nucleus region of comet Hale-Bopp

A series of CCD frames, showing the inner coma of Comet Hale-Bopp, was obtained with the SUSI high angular resolution camera at the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) under very good seeing conditions in the morning of March 20, 1996. The photo shows a composite of nine 1-min exposures through a red filtre. The telescope was set to follow the motion of the comet and the stars are therefore seen as nine small trails (the intervals correspond to the time needed for the read-out from the CCD). The field shown measures about 55 x 55 arcsec across. North is up and East is left.