Popularity of Comet Lovejoy

[ballaratdragons]

I can't help but be amazed at the number of separate threads about Comet Lovejoy!
It must be a record!
I don't remember Comet McNaught being this popular even though it was larger and an early night-time comet.!!

Here is a screen shot of just the first 2 pages of the IIS Forum Threads list and they keep going on pages 3 and 4 etc.
I have noticed that it has been this way for the last week at least, and it's gaining in popularity!

The red dots are Comet Lovejoy threads.

ONYA TERRY! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Yep, it's a popular subject, alright!!! :)

[Octane]

Terry needs his own sub-forum, titled "babez".

H

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: yes H

and I hope to join the throng of images tonight. It should be rising at my location about 2:30am :thumbsup:

The DSLR camera is all set to go. All I have to do is walk up to the clubroom up the back paddock and plop the tripod onto one of the scope slabs :)

Then I can start Comet Lovejoy thread number 200 :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Stephen, it looks like it will be in a good high altitude position for most of us in the southern half of Australia from about 3:30 onwards.
I have a clear view of the horizon from the spot I am going to image from so I will start snapping away about 2:30 am.

According to CDC, at my location (I'm on the 37th parallel) the head of Comet Lovejoy rises at 1:45am.
The tail should be obvious well before then. :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Stephen, try and be ready to shoot for between 2:30-3:30am. You can go later to 4:00 at a pinch but that twilight will really start to play havoc with the viewing pretty quickly. A few days ago, not so bad, as the comet was nearer the Sun and brighter. But it's starting to fade a bit now, so the darker the sky, the better.

[Octane]

And, it's raining in Canberra. Joy.

H

[GeoffW1]

:rofl::rofl:It's all great to see

[ballaratdragons]

Wow! That's bizzarre!
I only posted it once :lol:

Thanks H. I'm now deleting one of them :thumbsup:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

It's a battler.
Everyone loves a battler.
It shouldn't really have been here.
Survived a fatal encounter with the sun and gave us a good show at Crimbo.
Hard to fault something like that. :)

[mishku]

EVERYBODY loves a Christmas miracle, Ken :D onya, Terry!

I will cry if it looks amazing from SV. Cry, then quit my job :) Good luck!

[Ric]

Cloud cloud cloud

Wall to wall cloud

I must be the only one not to have seen it yet. :sadeyes:

[supernova1965]

ClouuuuuuuuuuuuD Disapeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from Wamboin NSW

Repeat as necessary until desired result achieved

If ineffective please see you psychologist:P.

But seriously Ric,

I know how you feel I thought I was going to miss it we got 1 clear day and one partial clear day and going by the weather now we were very lucky. I really hope it clears for you before it is to late.:stargaze:

[TrevorW]

Such a bright comet that most of us will never see again

Cheers

[Ric]

Cheers Warren :rofl::rofl:

I've been reading a few articles on the comet and it seems to suggest that there are a few days left for good viewing.

The BOM suggest there is some good weather on the way as well, I might get lucky yet.

[naskies]

Maybe it's to do with the availability of high quality cameras at affordable prices? Many of the current images are pushing SLRs to their limits on fixed tripods (30 sec, high ISO, wide apertures)... would have been a lot more difficult with a compact camera back then.

[Terry B]

I think that it is a combination of things. The crappy weather stopping other observing and a bright object that doesn't require tens of thousands of dollars of equipment to take a good image.
All good except for the hour of the day. I still can't bring myself to get up before dawn with cloud around so haven't seen it.

[Mick]

Not as many members on IIS in 2007? and the weather was not very good on the east coast at the time in 2007?

So glad to have had a few good mornings to observe Comet Lovejoy.

[AstralTraveller]

Not the only one Ric. Yesterday at 2.00am was 100% cloud and this morning it was raining. Yet it was perfectly clear at 8.00am. The prediction for the next few days is for basically clear weather except between about 1am and 7am. :sadeyes::sadeyes: :screwy:

[renormalised]

That's what's happened here, Dave, a couple of times. Completely clouded over from sunset to 8-9am then a perfectly clear (but damn hot) day!!!!.

Almost like someone had it in for us!!!:):P

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Yep. Day before McNaught the clouds rolled in. The day it "left" - clouds rolled back out.
Splendid.
Apart from it's ridiculously early show times, its been very interesting and thrilling to observe.

[michael_sa]

I haven't heard anything in the mainstream media about it at all, though I understand there has been mention of it.
As for it's popularity on here - I think it's a combination of two things already mentioned: the number of IIS members now and the number of digital cameras around now that are capable of taking a half decent image of it.

Michael.

[Terry B]

SMH today has a decent article on it with a pic of Terry Lovejoy and a SOHO image.

[star1961]

I first saw comet lovejoy on morning of dec 22 walked out the front of my house and just went WOW the sheer size of it and brightness like a motorcyclist high beam through space for me it absolutely leaves mcnaught for dead! I'm getting very distressed now that it's leaving us and damn and curse those evil clouds of the last few days!

[michael_sa]

The cloud has been a problem here too.
I thought McNaught was awesome, I'd say the opposite to you - at least from here it was anyway. :shrug:

Michael

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Mish, it looked stunning last night! :thumbsup:

But you don't have to quit your job just because of that :lol:

I did get quite a few pics, but I think most of them are out of focus :shrug:
I'll have a look at them tonight and see if any are worth posting.
But boy o boy it was a fantastic naked eye sight :)

[Kevnool]

Popular is the right word here.
I,m getting phone calls as to comet Lovejoy in the morning sky.
Eventually as we all knew it made APOD.

Cheers kev

[Blue Skies]

You could be right, there. I just realised that the last time I used a film camera was for McNaught (have a nice framed photo on the wall as the result). Since then I've been all digital. And we've all had some time to get used to the digital cameras and can use them to best potential!

[Kevnool]

Its still going strong.

#1 Put Terry on the map.
#2 Made a magical Christmas comet.
#3 Boosted the members above 10000.
#4 Imagers are going ballistic.
#5 You can feel the excitment in the posts.

More ?

Cheers Kev.

[Ric]

Yay, I finally got to see comet Lovejoy.:cool:

I stuck my head out the door on Thursday morning and was greeted by the tail spearing through the milky way.

After my eyes adapted a bit more the full sight of the comet and the milky way just kept on getting brighter and more spectacular.

It was a wonderous sight and I'm happy that I had the chance to see it.:)

And now it's back to cloud again. :mad2:

[AstralTraveller]

Good news Ric and I got my first look this morning. On the way home I was thinking about this thread and the buzz about the comet - the next thing I'm humming a bit of Led Zep with Plant singing 'I can't stop talkin' about love...'.

The comet's a bit surprising, I couldn't see any head - no condensation. Initially I though it was lost in the glow but even once it rose into the dark sky the tail just stops at the horizon end. Loverly long tail, it must have been nice a week ago.