Blast from the past

[Mickoid]

Hi there,
Just thought some of you old enough to remember the 1986 apparition of Halley's Comet might like this cropped repro of an old BW negative I dug out from a box under the house. I took it at about 4.30am on the 20th March 1986 from outer Melbourne. It was taken with Kodak 400iso TriX film and push processed to 3200iso to reduce the exposure time as it was a tripod mounted Pentax Spotmatic f SLR with a 50mm f1.4 lens.
I remember bracketing several exposures in 2 sec increments starting at 10 seconds. I copied 6 of the shortest ones with my Canon DSLR last night, inverted them, then ran them through DSS to stack them. The result is still very grainy but that was the nature of fast films 30 years ago, especially when you push processed them to increase their sensitivity. Hope you enjoy the nostalgia.

[geolindon]

Thanks for the memory jog Michael,
i wasn't an AA then but remember seeing it several times through the windscreen of a Castle Bacon truck driving north from Castlemaine, it looked just like your pic; BEAUTIFUL!!

[strongmanmike]

Awesome Michael! that was a wonderful time in the earlier days of my astrophotgraphy journey, thoroughly enjoyed the whole event :thumbsup:

I had just left yr12 in Canberra at the time and I have a photo I took on that same day (19/20 march) and at the same position, with a Pentax 6X7 camera and 300mm F4 lens

19/20 March 1986 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/73603078/original)

The tail was huge at that stage

Mike

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks Michael! Blast from the past indeed! That very morning I dragged my fiancée out of bed to come down onto the oval, near Luna Park, to have a look too. I remember it looking just like on your photo.

[Mickoid]

Thanks Mike, your shots are wonderful, were they piggybacked on an EQ mount or just tripod like mine? I always wanted one of those Pentax 6x7s in the days when larger format cameras were the thing to own. I had a 2.25 inch Twin lens Roliflex I tried piggybacking on my Vixen refractor but the results weren't good. Thanks for sharing those great shots. P.S. Just looked at your shots again and I've answered my question. 30 min exposure, of course!

[strongmanmike]

HERE (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110764271/original) is the dual Pentax setup used (with baby faced me :P) and a closer view (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110764269/original)

The 35mm camera there had a Pentax 200mm F2.5 lens on it and took THIS (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/67064676/original) shot

Cheers

Mike :)

[Mickoid]

Mike, they're classic shots, love the camera mount you made. You were very keen at 18 yrs old to get into it in such a big way. I didn't think 18yr olds had enough money to afford that type of equipment. Was it yours or someone elses? I struggled to pay for the film! I'm glad you did manage to take those shots because I haven't seen a lot of Halley comet photos around, especially as good as yours. How spoilt we are now with auto guiding and digital photography.

[strongmanmike]

My astrophotography work during 84/85 won a few awards (HERE (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110764947/original) is one of'em) and then some serious funding (through a grant scheme) for some Pentax gear for Dickson College - the yr11/12 college that I attended here in Canberra :) I was extremely lucky indeed. We managed to get about $3000 allocated (in 1985 $'s!!) and purchased a Pentax 6X7, with 105 F2.8 and 300 F4 lenses for the college, t'was excellent gear for the time and I used it for about two years or so.

The rest of the gear in the photo and film etc I bought with money from a part time job...made my own cold camera (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/154830231/original)even :)

Aaah good to reminisce

Mike

[Anth10]

Timeless. A fantastic effort to reproduce such a classic portrait of the famous comet. Well done Mick. I remember the hype around it when I was young, it was the beginning of my keen interest in the cosmos, a real treat. The old black and whites have that nostalgic appeal, that real old school imagery that has that classic space look about it. Thanks for sharing Mick and Mike. awesome.