Lovely shot Liz. This is gonna be awesome over the next few days with Lovejoy embedded in the Milky Way. Let's hope it hangs in there for another week.
My wife and I went out last night to see what we could find (after being unable to find any site with visibility times etc.). It was foggy in the lower parts of town so we proceeded up the hill to the lookout that faces west (with a nice view of the east between some trees).
This was like nothing I'd ever experienced and I'm glad that I stayed up until 3:30am to catch it.
This shot was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, ISO 200, 60s exposure @ 17mm. It's a blend of two images, the other a 106s exposure at ISO 500. The second image was used to reveal the tree, as it was too noisy to be used for the other half of the image.
Its driving me nuts.. for years i have actively been putting comet data in stellarium and looking around on the net for possible future comets that have a tail visible... The time has come to see another great one and ITS FR%%%EN RAINING NON STOP!! up yours clouds and bad weather..
Mind you we do need the rain but still cmon give me a break
Here's my first attempts at the comet. I had my head buried in the sand and only found out about it yesterday after seeing it on the general news media! Anyway I managed to head up to the East side of the Adelaide Hills last night to the Tungkillo lookout to get a view looking towards Mannum and Murray Bridge. Unfortunately there was cloud on the horizon that stayed all night but i still managed to get some decent views and images.
I quickly processed these in CS5 and they probably need a bit more work yet but I ran out of time! Taken with Nikon D7000, 18-105mm or Tokina 12-24mm. ISO 1600-5000, 20-30sec, f4.
Image 1 has a nice bright satellite that was heading towards the comet and Murray Bridge!
Image 2 is a cropped version of the very next image with the satellite, a small meteor (upper left), car headlights streak, town lights, Milky Way and the comet! I like all the different light sources in that one!
Image 3 is a 50mm shot
Image 4 I managed to see the head of the comet
Image 5 is a wide angle, 12mm with Mannum on the left and Murray Bridge right.
Off to Bordertown today so another dark sky beckons, although tomorrow night looks like being cloudy. I'm sure I get some later on though.
Thank you Andrew, Colin and Wade for your kind works, it is a delight to be out the snapping away at this glorious comet. Bring on tomorrow morning, with or without Santa!!
Beautiful images there too Wayne, some lovely detail in the tail!!
Thanks Liz. And yours is really nice too! Phil - yours are great as always. We're all taking some great shots and it doesn't matter what with - they all shoot the comet fantastically well. It does help when you have a good subject matter I guess too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz
Thank you Andrew, Colin and Wade for your kind works, it is a delight to be out the snapping away at this glorious comet. Bring on tomorrow morning, with or without Santa!!
Beautiful images there too Wayne, some lovely detail in the tail!!
Since everyone else is showing their images I'll put up my first effort as well. Taken this morning at 4am with a Canon 450D, 15sec at f.4.5 and ISO800. I cropped it and enhanced the contrast. I will try again tomorrow morning - will be setting the alarm a bit earlier this time! I had to walk about 20min to reach this spot, no car access, but the walk back in the cool air and morning twilight was lovely - Mars, Saturn, Mercury with Antares and Arcturus. Was worth the effort anyway.
Last edited by Blue Skies; 24-12-2011 at 08:38 PM.
Reason: grammar
All great shots everybody!
I just have a question for Terry ( or anyone else who can answer).
Why does the tail split roughly 2/3rds the way up?. How did it happen?
Just curious....
Thanks
Bartman
One is the ion tail, the other the dust tail. Must be just the angle we're looking at it that they blend together for most of the tail's length. The ion tail is always straight and usually blue in colour. The dust tail lags behind and is white. If you can find some old pics of Hale-Bopp you'll see a much better example of that. Anyone is welcome to describe things better! Would be interested in know the particular geometry of the tail, anyway.
Thanks Jacquie,
So I'm going to guess that the ion tail is lit up by the solar wind, and the dust tail is lit up by the solar light and curved due to the curved movement of the comet ( dust being heavier?).
Does that sound about right?
Cheers Jacquie ( btw can you see me waving from 14k's away )
Bartman
This mornings effort on Comet Lovejoy. Shot from Otaki River Estuary, well away from the streetlighting near home. ISO 3200,30secs, 28mm (28-70mm) Tokina @f/3.5. Noise reduction on,No processing. Everyone have a Kule Yule.
as can be seen from Mike's shot at the Otaki River, it is another glorius day on the 'sunshine coast,' (Lower North Island, West Coast, N.Z.). My 6th straight morning in a row. More to the point, what a Christmas present for all who make the effort to get out of bed!
My long time observing buddy, Noel Munford, and I drove out to a rural road about 25 km from my home to pop a few trees into the foreground. Noel is a professional photographer in the daytime so his Nikon DSLR is almost light years ahead of the old Canon 10D I'm using, and his images are just stunning. But I am happy with my pics. They show it the way I saw it.
Photo details: Canon 10D, 35mm, f/4.5, ISO 800, 30 seconds.
All were taken at Opiki on the Manawatu Plains, Tararua Ranges in the back-foreground.