Carl (renormalised) and myself headed west of Townsville this morning to see if we could see, and photograph the comet. Bit of a late start as couldnt find my cable release, and still cant!!
Townsville was covered in light cloud, but 20 min out, I pulled over, and the skies were clear and gorgeous!! It was just after 4am, shame we werent a bit earlier. What a relief to see stars everywhere and the comet tail was shooting up out of Scorpious. A magnificent sight, and for those who havent seen it from a dark site, you NEED to!! Nearly brings tears to the eyes.
Both took quite a few pics, with manual pressing of the shutter button, , then couldnt get the base of camera into tripod properly, time for new tripod I reckon.
40 min later, the predawn light was gathering, and the tail faded away.
This was the best comet I have seen for 15 years, since Hyakutake,(North Qld missed Comet Macnaught due to rain/cloud) and something I will never forget. Thankyou Terry.
Well done on a super collection Liz, sounds a mighty experience for sure and your captures are showing a good deal of the Milkway,
Glad you had the opportunity : ) OnYa for the meteor too, very coool ! !
It most certainly was a privilege to be shooting this object. Liz and I had a good time out there. The sky just opened up for us and hardly a cloud was in sight, until later on. A bit of ground fog built up as the sun was coming up (the usual early morning predawn drop in the dew point). Actually there was a bit of a nip to the air but as we came back into town, you could notice the difference as the air was warm there. Took a pair of binoculars and another camera out with me to get right into it, but I was that right into it I forgot about them entirely!!!!!.
Might try again from up at the local park which is just up the road from my place, in a day or two's time. Going to have a good night's sleep tonight!!!!