A NASA astronaut has hung a Skipton photographer's picture of the famous Hale Bopp comet in Mission Control in Houston.

Tony Harman has been "walking on the moon" since the Herald told him about the pride of place given to a copy of his stunning shot taken when the cosmic visitor came vividly into view last year.

Tony has sold nearly 100 copies of his snap locally, but one found its way to NASA when the cousin of a top astronaut spotted it in the window of his shop, Maple Leaf Images, on Sheep Street.

Alison Jerger, who works at Skipton Property Management, sent the image to her cousin, Commander Steve Robson, whose next mission takes him into space in October.

Commander Robson, 42, also played a major part in the development of the Space Shuttle's robotic arm, used for placing and retrieving satellites.

Alison said: "Even though Steve is a keen photographer himself, and has taken shots of the comet from the New Mexico desert, he was really taken with Tony's picture.

"Now it looks down on Mission Control and Steve likes to look at it to remind him and his colleagues of their missions."

Tony's photo was taken with a long exposure at the Chelker Reservoir near Addingham. As well as composing the shot to include the ground feature of a reservoir electricity wind turbine, he unwittingly caught three gas tails coming off the comet, according to a local astronomer admiring the picture in his shop.

Tony said: "Let's just say I feel out of this world."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.