August 1995 Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered by American amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp on July 23, 1995. Although it is still located beyond the orbit of Jupiter, it is unusually bright. This comet may possibly develop into a beautiful object in early 1997. The field measures 13 x 13 arcseconds. The pixel size is 0.05 arcseconds.
North is up and east is to the left.
It represents the densest part of the cloud of dust particles that surrounds the cometary nucleus.