PSA: aurora on red alert

Really –  if a negative. Unless the Grauniadh has changed the photo, the one I saw looked like a cloud against a sunset/rise sky.

I recall comet Hale Bopp in the late 90s was easily visible, very much the classic shape and bright in the sky but aiui it’s pretty unusual for a comet to be like that. For instance Halley was much heralded in the mid 80s but wasn’t much to look at.

There was one with a spectacular tail visible with the naked eye in the 90’s – comet Hyakutake 1996??

Comet over Bennachie tonight.. another treat in the night sky. It’s pretty faint but visible with the naked eye.

Phone camera picks it out nicely.

Really –  if a negative. Unless the Grauniadh has changed the photo, the one I saw looked like a cloud against a sunset/rise sky.

Seriously?

And yet the Guardian, BBC, and photos here,  all show a comet looking exactly „like that“.  As indeed is my recollection of Hale-Bopp from the 1990s. So while <i>some</i> comets don’t „look like that“, clearly some do.