The comet and the galaxy

The comet in this picture, Comet Hale-Bopp, was discovered individually by two "amateur" astronomers in July, 1995. This comet was the farthest comet to be discovered by "amateurs" and was discovered outside of Jupiter's orbit (7.15 AU). When it was discovered, it was 1000 times bigger than Comet Halley at that distance. Also, comets at that distance are usually inert, which means that Comet Hale-Bopp is probably a particularly large comet. The comet was at its closest distance to earth in March of 1997 (some of you may remember seeing it. I think I do)
The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest neighboring galaxy. This picture was almost ruined by the presence of the moon. The moon at that time was very close to being full, which would have made the Andromeda Galaxy not visable. This picture was taken during a total lunar eclipse, which I'm still not sure about how that took place coincidentally when the comet passed by the galaxy.