I have copies of current_c3.mpg starting at 20111213-1142 (before Lovejoy enters FOV) and 20111215-1418 (covers leaving the FOV). Bert's starts at 20111214-1530 so anyone wants a bit more at the start and finish, speak up and I'll see about uploading them.
Fantastic vid Bert, thats the first one I've seen with all the blank frames filled in.
Ian, Congratulations on sighting the comet! I wonder if this comet will be similiar to the 1880 and 1887 Kreutz comets which were basically "headless" comets.
I've been trying to think of previous headless comets in history and you have nailed a significant pair of them, and from from the same family to boot!
Fortunately for us here on the lower North Island's west coast we are enjoying our first real purple patch of weather since September. A really foul spring, similar to 2006 which funnily enough culminated with McNaught's arrival. The forecast suggests that I will be up every morning from now until Christmas, and possibly longer.
I stll expect to see a good comet sitting above the twilight this week. This is my first Kreutz member. I was only 8 when Ikeya-Seki came through. My mate Noel saw that one. Noel actually mistook the tail for the Milkyway until he realized what it was! I wasn't into serious astronomy when White-Ortiz-Bolelli popped up briefly in 1970, so I missed on that one too.
Just re-read from Gary W. Kronk's book the references to those two Kreutz members. One thing that may still happen with this comet when it gets above the twilight, and the moon has lost all influence, could be a strong lengthening of the tail as seen from rural locations.
As an example of how faint the extreme ends of long comet tails are, according to the ship log of the Endeavour when Cook's crew observed Messier's best comet in September 1769, the tail was 70 degrees long. As soon as a thin morning crescent Moon rose the tail shrunk to only a third of its length!
Back in 2004 when we had the Duelling Comets in the sky, I advised would be astrophotographers to take a few ultra-widefield shots to pick up the true end of any possible tail. During the week that the two comets were at their best we had another spell of great weather. So good in fact that I had John Drummond of Gisborne travel the 400km to my place to get a good chance to capture the comets with his new DSLR. On May 19th, 2004, John captured the Ion tail stretching out to 45 degrees!
So once again I say, don't just concentrate on the obvious. Take some deep, wide-angle shots as well, even disgonalling the field along the line of the tail if need be!
I have a ton of photos but I'm not sure if I got it or not this morning. It's difficult! Weather will be bad the next couple of days so I'll be back on friday... hunting...
Weather in Adelaide is going to be clear over the coming days (about time!) I might wake up early the next few mornings. It all depends how I feel as I plan to do some imaging work over the next couple of nights as well. Not enough hours for sleep!
What a difference a day makes! Get out of bed everyone. It is well worth the effort!
The naked-eye tail was sticking above the twilight as soon as my bleary eyes looked in that direction. Like a smaller, fainter version of Ikeya-Seki.
I took some exposures on my Fuji Finepix S9500. I also, in my excitement, managed to stuff the focus on my best exposed shot.
Here are my best frames. No doubt we will see a lot better from others soon. 15.16 U.T. was 4.16 a.m. local Daylight Time.
When the coma actually rose I could see no sign of the nucleus in 10 x 50 bino's.
This is looking like a fine comet, even without a head!
went down to the bottom of our block of land for my easterly viewing of the comet and with my 9x63 binos was unable to see it ....there always seems to be a nice puffy cloud on the horizon where you need to look but it was still worth the try,sounds like the weekend is going to be the time to best view this comet fingers crossed for some clear weather.... and the moon looked beautiful this morning
Just came back inside. Absolutely clear skies but I couldn't see it. I could see Antares through binoculars though. Maybe needed to go out earlier than 5? Will try again tomorrow morning.
that was 4.16 a.m. local Daylight Saving Time (for latitude 40 south). I would start looking from 3.15 tomorrow morning as the tail will be already rising by then. The comet is starting to move up into the first of the tail stars of Scorpius. The whole comet should be sitting just above the twilight tomorrow morning.
Thanks for the tip Coops. Great shot by the way. I was up imaging until 1 and then got up at 5. It's a bit of struggle at the moment. I had planned doing the same tonight as it's supposed to be clear. I will try and get up earlier. It's getting towards the point that I may as well image through the night. Plenty of red bull might be in order tomorrow!
sadly didn't see Comet Lovejoy, but as always some lovely star views. Out of interest did anyone else see a satellite around 5am(ish) going into the South East.
Space Weather suggests it was Hubble;
Hubble Space Telescope 04:12:31 am WNW 04:15:52 32° 3.6 (dim)
This is a stellarium shot for 22/12, but as most have seen in images being taken, the tail whizzes right over Scorpious!! Get out early ... as per Coops, from 3.15.
Newbie here . Haven't seen any reports from WA, so thought I'd chime in.
After reading Ian Cooper's post I decided to drive south to the Mandurah Esturary around 2 am for a look. Light pollution is pretty low down there. I took 2 cameras, 1 for timelapsing and the other stills. I started taking images around 2:50 WST. At around 3:10 the first hint of tail appeared above the trees and by 3:15 I could see it visually. It stayed in clear view (non averted vision) from then until around 4:10 (deep twilight). An awesome sight.
I also attempted a 24mm timelapse of the whole event. Haven't looked at that yet, but if it's any good I'll post it here.
If you're lucky enough to have clear skies tomorrow, I urge you to go out before the onset of astronomical twilight. If the comet is anything like it was this morning you won't be disappointed.
Thanks to Ian for the heads up.
Last edited by colinmlegg; 21-12-2011 at 11:11 AM.
What a difference a day makes! Get out of bed everyone. It is well worth the effort!
The naked-eye tail was sticking above the twilight as soon as my bleary eyes looked in that direction. Like a smaller, fainter version of Ikeya-Seki.
I took some exposures on my Fuji Finepix S9500. I also, in my excitement, managed to stuff the focus on my best exposed shot.
Here are my best frames. No doubt we will see a lot better from others soon. 15.16 U.T. was 4.16 a.m. local Daylight Time.
When the coma actually rose I could see no sign of the nucleus in 10 x 50 bino's.
This is looking like a fine comet, even without a head!
Cheers
Coops
Amazing images, great skill and timing.
Regards
Lydia