Gave Lovejoy a final go this morning. Had to wait for it to rise above surrounding mountains so it only became visible from 02:40 onwards.
The comet was just barely visible naked-eye and much fainter than on the 29th. Averted vision was needed to see the extent of the tail and visually it appeared much shorter.
I still have to download the pics I took to see how they turned out.
hey all so impressed and moved By Comet Lovejoy experience, like everybody here i had to write a tune about it and record it today, as thats what i do these days
There's life in the old dog yet! Just snuck out after midnight & shot a heap of subs at 30 sec off the tripod with not much expectation. Was rapt to see the long tail extending at least to the Coal Sack and maybe beyond! That's at least 25 degrees, maybe out to well over 30. http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...fulladjbsm.jpg
The bright glow at bottom right was a street light glaring right in my eyes so can't say how much of it was visible naked-eye unfortunately.
Nice work, Rob! I'm at a super dark site right now (6 hrs west of Brisbane) and funnily enough the naked eye views are almost exactly the same as in your photo. Lovejoy is still naked eye visible here, but it's noticeably dimmer than the Milky Way and LMC/SMC.
Edit: just shot my first sub in the vicinity of Lovejoy. At 5 min / f/2.8 / ISO 1600, I'm seeing the tail extend well past Coalsack and almost reaching Eta Carina.
Finally clear again. The comet has certainly faded. Still naked eye, however it is getting tough if there is any haze or stray light around. The attached photo is a median combine of 18 x 30s photos at ISO3200. 24mm f4 (slightly cropped). The tail can be seen well past the cross towards eta Car.
Cheers,
Chris
Here are some shots from this morning, Sunday 1st Jan at the Gippsland Lakes.
Two are 60 secs at f1.8 and ISO800 with 24mm lens. Third is 4 mins at f3.2 and ISO400 with 50mm lens. All on 5DmkII.
Fainter again, but still very large. Hard to tell where it ends given alignment with some bright patches of milky way into Musca. Field of view of 50mm lens should be 40 degrees from top to bottom.
Phil - gotta ask, what's that light on the lake edge? The camp? And the bioluminescence...are you seeing any this year?
The bright white light is a navigation mark on Pt Turner at the end of Banksia Peninsula. The dim red glow is from the flare on an offshore platform in Bass Strait.
Absolutely no bioluminescence in the lakes at the moment. There's some blue-green algae in parts of the lakes but unfortunately it's not the glowing type :-(. However I did see some bioluminescent mushrooms when i was up in the morning last week.. honest!
At a dark site again... it's becoming quite dim. Even the Octans are easier to spot than the comet Still naked eye visible with direct vision, though it only looks like a search light with averted vision.
Beautiful clear morning in Townsville, so out for a look for the comet from my place, but not a chance, even with averted vision. Took a few pics, and at a quick glance, the comet barely shows up on them either!! (No guiding equipment0 From what I can see in the pics, the tail looks looong and thin. Back to bed for some more zzzzzzzz.
Terry's comet was only just naked eye here today. I could see it up through TrA. I had to block out stray light to see it.
With 7x50 binos I traced the tail as far as gamma Muscae, that is 24 degrees, but I am not certain.
Hi,
Boy, it's faint now. The comet is now clearing the neighbour's trees by a reasonable margin so I took these from my observatory. With the glow from Monash Uni I could not see the comet, unlike the previous morning when I could just make it out.
Anyway, the site is not quite as dark as where I planted myself for my previous photos, however at least I could guide! These are a median combine of 23 x 2min shots taken over a period of nearly 2hrs with my Canon 40D at 24mm F4 ISO800. The strip has been histogram stretched to tweek out some more detail.
Cheers,
Chris