Home > Los Angeles Times October 8, 2001

Jose Cardenas

Los Angeles Times October 8, 2001

The camera captured a heavenly sight - Comet Hale-Bopp, shining brightly in the desert night sky, floating away from the viewer. From the desert floor, the eye behind the camera saw the comet just to the left of a red-rock formation in the foreground. That mysterious image was named picture of the year by Time magazine in 1997. But the photograph - and others seen by school children and astronomy buffs around the world - was not the work of a scientist or an astronomy professor. The original copy of this picture of Hale-Bopp's white head, with its long tail stretched across the sky, hangs in the living room of former Montrealer Wally Pacholka. It's the best-known of countless images of comets and meteors captured by the amateur astronomer with a modest camera...

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