Al Monkowski's Gallery

The moon occulting stars in the Pleiades in 1991. Photo taken in Yardley, PA, by Jeanne Krzywicki and Alfred Monkowski, MD on the evening of 20 March, using 400 mm f6.3 lens, and 20 second exposure on Ektachrome 200 ASA film.

The time of the exposure was not specified, but from positional analysis of the moon and the visibility of nearby stars we have determined it to have been made at 8:25 pm EST on that evening. The moon is moving to the left and has passed 2.9 magnitude Alcyone immediately to the right, 3.9 mag Maia farther to the right and higher, and 4.2 mag Taygeta still farther to the right. Below and to the right of Alcyone is a variable, V971 Tau, which is about mag 4.3, and to the right of this star is 3.7 mag Electra and above that star is 5.3 mag Celaeno. 3.6 mag Atlas is occulted by the moon, but five of the named stars in the Pleiades are visible.

Comet Hale-Bopp in Andromeda. Photo by Al Monkowski, taken 2 April 1997, Yardley, PA, one day after perihelion. The exposure was hand guided for 3 minutes with 200 mm f3 lens using Ektapress 1600 film. The comet was travelling 107,500 mph moving to the upper left. The dust tail extends more than 8 degrees and the ion tail is plainly visible. The bright star below and to the left of the nucleus is 2.3 mag gamma And, while 60 And shines at mag 4.8 directly above the nucleus.

Comet Hale-Bopp in Andromeda. Photo by Al Monkowski, taken 9 April 1997, Yardley, PA, seven days after the photo above. The exposure was hand guided for 4 minutes with 400 mm f6.3 lens using Ektapress 1600 film. The comet, now nine days past perihelion has slowed down considerably, travelling only 97300 mph to the upper left. The dust tail extends more than 8 degrees and the ion tail is plainly visible.

The bright star above the nucleus is 2.1 mag beta Persei (Algol), the star directly left of Algol is 5.8 mag omega Persei (Gorgonea Quarta), the star below omega is deep red (spectral class M3) rho Persei shining at mag 3.3, and the star directly below the nucleus is 4.7 mag pi Persei (Gorgonea Secunda). The faintest stars visible in this photo are fainter than 13th magnitude.