Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Above, Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed on March 8th in the constellation of Cygnus . Visible on the right in red is the North American Nebula , a bright emission nebula observable from a dark location with binoculars. The North American Nebula is about 1500 light years away, much further than the comet, which was about 8 light minutes away. Several bright blue stars from the open cluster M39 are visible just above the comet's blue ion tail .
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