Comet Hale-Bopp

False-colour composite photo of Comet Hale-Bopp, obtained on June 18, 1999, with the EMMI instrument at the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla. Three exposures were made through V- (green-yellow; 60 sec; here colour-coded as "blue"), R- (red; 30 sec; "green") and I (infrared, 30s; "red"), respectively. The sky field measures about 7.2 x 7.2 arcmin 2 (2048x2048 pixels). The pixel size is 0.21/arcsec. North is up and East is left. The comet moved just over 1 arcsec during this series of exposures. The bright star in the lower left quadrant is unsually red. The broad line extending to the right from this star is an optical reflection in the telescope. A distant galaxy is seen to the right below the centre (at 4 o'clock) of the comet.