Kreutz SunGrazer Lovejoy

[Blue Skies]

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.

[Suzy]

I have to re-do it without the music by the looks of it. Youtube blocked my choice of song.

[Liz]

How dare they!!! You would have had trouble with images as the quality has been astounding!!


Well done Jacqui, lovely image,and well worth the walk. I agree, the planets looked great, especially Mars!!

[WadeH]

Nothing wrong with your shot Jacqui, very nice.

[bartman]

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

[Blue Skies]

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.

[bartman]

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

[Blue Skies]

Well, I'm over the crest of the hills, so probably not... :hi:

Yes, I think so, for the tail workings.

[pixelsaurus]

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.

[Ian Cooper]

Morning All,

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.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

Coops

[Liz]

Great pics Kiwi lads!!

That tail looks awesome Coops, 25 dg!! :eyepop:

Clouded out here - sat down on the > 1 hr, but no comet to be found through the cloud. Might catch a few zzzzzzzzz before the real day begins.

Merry Xmas. :xmas:

[callingrohit]

Merry Christmas to everyone.

I have finally been LoveJoy'd.

Luckily the clouds cleared up giving me the view of this awesome comet - my first comet viewing- hence the excitement. I couldnt ask for a better gift on Christmas day !!!

I didn't find it that bright as commented in this thread however I wasn't at a very dark site so may be thats why.

Attached is one of the images taken -
Location - Boat Harbour Drive @ Hervey Bay
Settings - f/3.5, 24 sec, 18mm, ISO 1600

[Liz]

Woohoo Vivek, very exciting and lovely photo!! :xmas:

[deanog]

Have been out and watched it 3 mornings in a row now. Just beautiful.
Staying at my parents in Beaufort, Vic for Christmas.
We had a dry storm with lightning in all directions which gave the clouds on the left of the pic a nice glow.

106115

Exposure 45 seconds
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 3200

Larger version on my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/deanog/6565056031)

[Adelastro1]

Great shot Dean! Nice colours and composition. I'm in Bordertown for Xmas and went to a nearby swamp and had the same thunderstorms. Added a nice touch to some images. I'll post mine after my Xmas lunch!

[WadeH]

That is my favorite shot of all posted so far Dean. Amazing. Well done.

[Adelastro1]

Does anybody know it's current magnitude? I heard it peaked at -4 and looking at it last night it seems fainter. I can see this in the images I've taken over the last two nights

[deanog]

Many thanks for the great comments. Can't wait to get out and look at it again.

[Adelastro1]

Here are a couple of the best images I took last night at a swamp near Bordertown, SA. The orange glow is from lightning in the distance. I posted these on another thread but this seems to be the main thread people are looking at for images! :D
More of my images can be found here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=84623&highlight=lovejoy

[Liz]

Dean and Wayne, they are spectacular images - stars,trees, comet, water and reflections!! I hope you have sent them to Spaceweather!!

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Liz! Yes I might just do that and a few other places.:)

According to SkippySky it looks like just about the whole south east corner of country will be covered in cloud tonight so it's up to you WA, northern NSW and Qld'ers to get stuck into imaging the comet! At least I can sleep tonight! :thumbsup:

[N1CK06]

Looks like Brisbane and Gold Coast are finally going to get a clear night tonight, fingers crossed!

[callingrohit]

Thank you Liz for your kind words. I'll be trying some more today and hopefully weather helps.

Dean/wayne - awesome compositions in your snaps.

Good luck everyone for tomorrow's sighting !!!

More :eyepop: snaps !!!

[pixelsaurus]

Down at Otaki River Estuary again this morning. Used an 18mm lens this time. Atmosphere was a little hazy today. Shot at ISO 800 today, forgot to reset the camera from shooting morning twilight yesterday.

[steve000]

Yep we did, too late :(

If your southern/eastern sky was without light pollution you might see it, I took 8sec exposure at 1600iso and got the faintest tail, almost not visible. Brisbane sucks, clouds suck, send me back to the country where it never rained.

[GrahamL]

Finally woke up at 3.00am to find clearish skys this morning
Drove 10 minutes to work (150 acre) dark sky site to find the gate locked !, oh man its never freakin locked !!..Luckily I remembered ,eventually , the back gate was open .

very impressive comet , different looking to mcnaught in that the tail; appears much straighter /longer ?, not overly bright as mentioned I can see why people are putting a few hundred KMS in to get away from the city lights,will be interesting to see what happens when it gets a little further away from sunrise and higher. I'm off camping to minnie waters for a while so hopefully the weather plays nice and I can try out my new weifeng tripod I got yesterday .

[Liz]

OMG, what a difference 2 days make. Went to a dark site, 1 hr from where I live and the tail has faded soooo much. :sadeyes: I could see it naked eye... just ..... but better with averted vision. I believe the tail was longer though.

Thought the tail had split quite a bit with the separation of the dust and ion sections, but not having looked at my pics yet, maybe it was just because it is now in the Milky way.

Gunna head back to bed for a few hours. :zzz::zzz:

[Ian Cooper]

Good onya Liz. Glad to see that you have been getting some good views.

Unfortunately nothing to report today other than the possibility that Murphy is back from his holiday. Brilliantly clear last night when I hit the sack. Got up at my usual (well lately anyway) 2.30 a.m. to find a layer of stratus cumulus over the whole plain. Every little town in the district was lighting up the clouds. I waited around for 40 mins and it only seemed to be getting thicker. I packed it in after that. Woke at 6.00 a.m. to see the sun streaming in my bedroom window. Got up to find there was no sign of cloud anywhere! The Met Service predicted another glorious day for us they just forgot to mention Murphy.

There is still a chance tomorrow morning. In the meantime I'm hoping that all of you folks out west of me have some stunning pics to post soon.

Cheers

Coops

[luigi]

After 3 days of observation I think the tail is getting bigger but fainter and the sepparation between the two tails is now harder to see with the naked eye.

[swannies1983]

Dramatic drop in brightness? Damn. Adelaide's weather will be fine from wed onwards, with a chance it will be clearish tomorrow. Hopefully the tail doesn't fade too much.

[luigi]

I didn't notice a dramatic drop. The tail it's very very easy to see with the naked eye from rural areas. In fact rural people point to it asking what the thing is. Looks like the beam of a reflector but it curves up.

[swannies1983]

No worries. I was just going by Liz's comment http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=802514&postcount=277

I had been following this prediction http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=801667&postcount=5 so didn't expect a large drop in brightness yet.

I was able to see Lovejoy a couple of times last week but clouds have spoilt the show for the last few mornings. I might be able to borrow a better camera tonight. I now also have a tripod (dad found one at his house), so i don't need to support the camera on a pillow on the top of my car :P

[mithrandir]

I'm with Ian. Went to bed to clear skies. Up at 2:00 to drive somewhere with a good horizon.

A solid cloud band about 25 deg high lay along the eastern horizon. Occasional stars were peeping through to the NNE keeping up hope, but I gave up around 3:45 with twilight approaching.

At least I saw a bit of it from home on Xmas Day thought the Sydney light pollution.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Luigi and Swannies,

we should expect an aparent drop of in brightness as the comet approaches perigee. With the increase in not only length, but width as well, the light is spread over a greater area and therefore gives the impression of being fainter.

Having said that there is also the decreasing amount of volatiles coming from the central condensation as the comet backs away from the sun that has a great impact on the appearance of Lovejoy now compared to five days ago.

Luigi is right regarding the urban vs rural view. The rural view is best, but my mate George Ionas who lives on the south eastern side of Palmerston North (population 80,000) saw the comet from his backyard this morning after the cloud that took me out cleared in his vicinity. So, there is still hope for city dwellers who minimize their light pollution problems as much as possible.

The only photos that I have seen from this morning suggest that the light along the tail is fairly evenly bright. Which was my impression too yesterday.

Cheers, Coops.

[swannies1983]

Thanks Ian. I certainly understand some of the factors contributing to differences in brightness. This is one reason why I travel about 20mins to get to a relatively dark spot.

I know the comet will fade but I was under the impression that it would still be fairly easy to see at least for a few more days.

[Liz]

I dont think I will be able to see the comet again :sad:, I think I need to rest tommorrw am, but I did think the drop in brightness over the last 2 days was quite a bit. Still, perhaps my eyes are not as good as used to be. ;)

2 days ago it was stunning from the dark site, today was .... ah, where is it?? Just me. :rolleyes:

Good luck, but make sure its tomorrow am, time is running out.:sadeyes:

[colinmlegg]

Agree with Liz and Ian...although my last view was 3 days ago, had to take some time out for xmas duties (damn).

Anticipating the drop off I drove out north of Esperance yesterday. Other than some airglow to the south (over the ocean), the sky was clear and very dark.

Attached taken just before onset of astronomical twilight 26-Dec-2011 (AWST) with 14mm, @ iso 3200, f/2.8, 25s

Nice to also get some zodiacal light + ISS in the same shot.

Will stay another couple of days...even without the comet it's nice to get away from those darn city lights.

[fringe_dweller]

i note many saying the comets tail is dropping off in intensity, and that may likely be the case for all i know, not having seen if for some days, .. but may be worth noting that, at least when i was still a cometchaser, it was often remarked on well known phenomena that comets appeared to dim when passing through milky way (in front of), (du to loss of contrast) and then people spoke of sudden (apparent) brightening once out the other side, altho that was usually in reference to less spectacular comets .. must be a factor in dimming just the same, even if is truly dimming

Colin, that is amazing all those sky (and space) phenomena in one pic - you have my vote!

[fringe_dweller]

Ian those shots of W3 with the cabbage trees are truly retro, nostalgic of older famous comet shots for me, bit like the techpan and schmidt cameras are, cheers

[fringe_dweller]

as to interesting 'two tails' i dont know answer to that, i even visited my old virtual hangout - comet central - comets_ml to see if there was answers there from the many knowledgeable experts, after short search i couldnt find one!? but i suspect? it is something to do with parabolic hood of dust tail seen in early pics http://www.sott.net/image/image/s4/89554/full/ebr.jpg creating effectively two tails, so material releasing jet(s) are on sun facing side of comet, creating an apparent gap behind .. i read here the tail is pointing towards earth at the moment, from our perspective, ... also in a weird way.. and its only my weird take on it tails also appear to cross over each at some point, not unlike the intersecting meeting points of a venn diagram lol - my expalnation is probably way off, anyway i tried to make sense of it :)

[Regulus]

Having been out at 5.15 on Xmas morning then 4.30 today I have been disappointed to find nothing of Lovejoy in the sky.
Any reason I shouldn't be able to see it from just 300kms south of Melbourne??
Hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a happy and joyful day.

[renormalised]

Trevor, you need to get out around 2:30am to see the comet in its glory. It's best around 3-3:30am and onto about 4:15....just before the sky starts to brighten too much. 15 mins can make a big difference as to whether you see it at all. Also, make sure you have a clear sky and try to get away from town lights. Look about halfway down the back of Scorpius and to the lower left of the pointers. You'll see it.....it's unmistakable:)

[Liz]

My image from this morning, and maybe my last as cloud from Cyclone Grant is about to descend, and the comet tail fades, but what a wonderful journey it has been!! :)

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Colin,

that is the image I have been waiting for this morning since I missed out. The only other shot I've seen has probably clipped the end of the tail. You didn't by chance take anything more zoomed in?

You haven't exactly missed much in that one shot!

Kearn,

regarding the two tails, perhaps the analogy that often comes to mind with substantial comet tails like this one is the 'twisting ribbon effect.' There can often be two jetting points emerging from the comets nucleus. Each sends out a stream as the nucleus rotates. The twists spiral out and away from the nucleus over the coming days.

The initial split that everyone has seen is now well up the tail, and looking at Colins latest pic it has almost reached the end. To make that point clearer I've attached a shot of Hyakutake by my mate Noel Munford on March 22nd, 1996. Taken on a 50mm lens at f/2 Fuji P800 film 25 seconds. You can clearly see the split in the tail above the bright star (Arcturus). In my shot of Hyakutake from March 23rd, 1996, taken with Nikon and an f/1.4 50mm lens, 25 seconds on Konica 3200 film, the two threads have now twisted ribbon like. The K3200 is a lot more grainy than the P800, but you can see how one thread loops up and over towards Arcturus from the coma before diving back across the seemingly straight thread, then underneath to re-emerge.

The drawing attached is one that I did for a talk on this great comet and better shows the ribbon effect. The drawing also shows the actual length better compared to the photo.

I hope that helps.

Coops

BTW the end of the tail is now circumpolar from my place (40 south), and even though it will be running almost horizontal along the horizon I might give it a go after astronomical twilight ends (around 10.30 p.m. N.Z.D.T.)

[fringe_dweller]

I like that explanation on morphology Coops! make good sense :) ah yes, great comet bright tail rising first in dark skies - at that stage with head below horizon sure had shades of B2 for us also :) ah memories

[fringe_dweller]

cool! like a giant sky clock it will always be Comet time! :eyepop:

[fringe_dweller]

now i remember my comets 101 a little better Coops! i also now remember the other old analogy ( for sunward facing jets) of the lawn sprinkler hehe albiet a very slow or stuck one in this case

Comet 2000 WM1 (LINEAR) another dust comet, on a much smaller scale,, had similarities back in jan/feb 2002 during outburst - Michael Mattiazzo has some great images of jet activity (http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/_private/great_southern_binocular_comet_of%2 02002%20page1.htm) , of WM1 at that time, that might help with conceptualising similar morphology in Comet Lovejoy for some who may be new to this stuff, and getting head around it .. altho in WM1's case it was more side on view at that time, rather than this perspective of from behind we are experiencing with C lovejoy

http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/images/wm1jan31.jpg

[glenc]

The naked eye tail on Comet Lovejoy was about 27 degrees long this morning. The comet was brighter than the Norma star cloud.
I observed it from Gibraltar Rd Clifton (elevation 690m) about 36km west of Tenterfield NSW.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Kearn,

yes I remeber WM1 well. Those two links are great too.

You may remember the picture attached of WM1 that I took with the 400mm at f/6.3, Fuji P800 for 15 minutes from memory. This is closely cropped but shows the start of the Ion Tail snaking across in front of the two dust streamers.

With reference to Glenc's comments on the tail length I plotted the tail from Colin Legg's fine shot this morning and measured it out to 28.5 degrees. So she is still climbing as expected.

I made up a background chart from The Sky 6.0 programme. Turned it into a B&W negative, then penciled in the comet from photos we have taken this week, Colin's being the clincher. Re-scanned that and reversed it back ito a B&W image. This quite dramatically shows how the tail is growing as it comes towards us.

For tonight, and tomorrow morning the end of the tail will be against the dark of the Emu's neck which should improve the contrast immensely.

Cheers

Coops

[fringe_dweller]

I do indeed remember that fine shot yours Coops, good time to bring it out! love that chart too, it has helped me visualise progress a lot cheers :thumbsup:

27 visual, 28.5 deg photographic tail! :eyepop:

[CometGuy]

I tried higher resolution imaging around the nucleus this morning (Dec 25.75). This is a result of 12 x 15 second exposures using a C8 Hyperstar + QHY9 camera. This is a 1.6 degree square field of view.

Terry

[renormalised]

That is some small nucleus!!!

[callingrohit]

Liz and Colin - awesome images.

Ian - fantastic chart. I was not going to go out the 3rd time tomorrow morning as, for me the composition of the snap is not changing. However your predictions that it may look brighter has just made me want to get up again and see it in the morning.

Attached are some of the snaps from this morning -

I went to the Urangan Pier thinking it might be a better shot but the light pollution was more so in the end went back to the fisherman wharf and took the snaps.

Snap 1 - Urangan Pier - 18mm, f/5, 44 sec @ ISO 3200

Snap 2 - Fisherman Wharf - 18mm, f/3.5, 45 sec @ ISO 3200

Snap 3 - Fisherman Wharf - 100mm, f/4.5, 30 sec @ ISO 3200

Snap 4 - Fisherman Wharf - 100mm, f/4.5, 45 sec @ ISO 3200

Snap 5 - Fisherman Wharf - 22mm, f/3.5, 24 sec @ ISO 1600 (a bit overexposed)

[callingrohit]

Awesome Image Terry - fantastic clarity.
:prey2::prey2::prey2:

[renormalised]

The light pollution has spoiled some of your shots Vivek...it's a pity. But great try :)

You're going to have to go somewhere a lot darker. Trying to shoot in Brissie is really asking too much. Even lowering the ISO rating won't help there.

[callingrohit]

Thanks Carl. These snaps are from Hervey Bay and not from Brisbane. Once I go back, I will probably have to drive down to rural areas.

Any suggestions for nearby rural areas around Brisbane.

[renormalised]

You'll probably have to drive a good distance out of Brisbane, unless you can find somewhere there that has a relatively dark southern horizon.

You could try one of hamlets up on the scenic rim, or go up to Maleny. Or, you could try the sea side of Nth Stradbroke....go out to Pt Lookout. Just to get the lights either far enough away or behind you as best as you can. You'll get some LP from the GC and such from Straddy but it won't be near as bad as being inside Bris'.

[Suzy]

Here are some very simple point and shoot shots that my hubby took (We are not seasoned imagers by any stretch). Just using a Sony Cybershot camera (with Carl Zeiss lens). Single 30 sec exposure, no processing.
(F2.8, F/L 8mm).

Taken this morning 26th December between 3.30-3.45am at a place called Fairney View which is situated between Fernvale & Lake Manchester, Queensland.
I compared the brightness to the LMC and noted that the comet was much dimmer than the LMC (to my eye, half as dim). By 4am it was gone.

Shelley saw the comet from the Archerfield airport the morning before (25th) and said it was very dim from there which prompted hubby and I to make a hasty trip out to a rural area after Xmas celebrations. This area is only 45mins from Archerfield and has beautiful dark milky way skies.
When we got there, it was easily noticable, though I had to point it out to hubby at first - was quite dim. Yet, quite awesome as it was so huge.


106246

106247

106248

[astroron]

Great pics from such a ordinary camera Suzy, well done and I am glad that you found a great place to observe it from:D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[pixelsaurus]

Todays effort was fraught with frustration. Patchy cloud when my wife and I left home to go to our site on the Otaki River Estuary. By the time we arrived (10 mins), it had clagged out. Holes kept appearing on the western part of the sky but as they drifted south east, filled with cloud. Annoying to see the Eta Carinae region through high cloud but no Cross. Well into twilight before it started to clear up.

[swannies1983]

Completely clouded out in southern adelaide. Time to go back to sleep.

[Ian Cooper]

A quick note before I literally fall over. Clouded out here as soon as twilight was over. So threw everything in the car and drove over the otherside of the Tararua Ranges (the same mountains that were in my pics Thursday & Friday mornings). 180 km round trip, but it was worth it. Tail out to 30 degrees but it is harder to tell because the end is intermingled with bright Milkyway fields near Beta Centauri.

At one spot the transparency was so good I could see dark lanes from the Coal Sack region spreading right through Chamaleon. Always a sign of a good night. I'll process the pics later. It was clear when I got home but I am not sure for how long. I wasn't waiting around to find out. Maybe I will tonight though. It would be great to do some decent long exposures.

Wishing you all clear skies.

Coops

[Adelastro1]

Completely cloud free sky here in Bordertown in the South East! A bit of cloud came up on horizon at 4am but didn't interfere with photos. Another beautiful still night so will post some more Comet reflections tomorrow! The ISS made two passes near Lovejoy. One 3 minute sky transit at 4.20 and an amazing short transit at about 2.30 right across the lower part of the comet tail!!!!! :eyepop: I was lucky enough to capture them both and if I feel like processing the shirt transit image before bed I'll post it!

The comet definitely appears fainter but also larger and I agree with Ian, it's about 30deg now.

[renormalised]

Complete no show up here this morning. Sky was a milky white with heat haze. Barely see any stars. Even too damn hot/humid to stay in bed!!!.

[Adelastro1]

Here's a quick image I took this morning. It shows the ISS transiting the bottom of the comet!! I couldn't believe that the entire transit cut perfectly across the comet like this! The image is 30sec and the transit was probably only 10secs total so I was lucky I was taking a photo at the time! I knew it was going to be a short transit but was amazed that this happened!
I was also able to get its reflection in the water too, along with the comet, the Pointers and Southern Cross (just!).

[renormalised]

Another great shot, Wayne :)

Getting the ISS in the shot like that...you've got to be stoked:)

[Liz]

Finally a sleepin!! Yah, knew it wasnt going to be good up here, as per Carl, HOT and Humid, light cloud everywhere.

Terry - like, wow, fabulous image, what can I say!!! :thumbsup:

Wayne - another cracker too. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Wel done everyone else too, good to see images still coming through, so good on ya out for getting out there and doing the hard yards!!

[colinmlegg]

Ian - I have another pic from last night with same settings as the night before. Just in case you didn't your shot, here it is for comparison. The comet has definitely dimmed further over the course of a day.

Out in the boondocks so internet coverage is restricted to an early morning look. Good work Ian on the graph. Yes, I have a zoomed version...let me know if you need it. Intriguing discussion you guys had yesterday re. tail.

[renormalised]

Another nice shot, Colin :)

[swannies1983]

It looks like I will finally be able to view Lovejoy again, whatever is left of it, as sunny conditions are expected over the next few days. There's only been one real cloud free night over the course of the last week. A few glimpses here and there.

[mishku]

I had planned a sojourn from the bright lights of Melbourne (who am I kidding? It was a sojourn from the dense clouds of Melbourne!) down to Torquay for the Christmas break. It all seemed right - mornings off to sleep in, relatively dark skies, and an east facing balcony from our hotel. Christmas morning? Thunder, and dense clouds! Melbourne had a tornado warning, but the wind didn't shift those recalcitrant clouds. Boxing day? Clouds so thick it didn't even warrant heading onto the balcony. This morning? Clear views of the southern cross and centaurus, but those pesky, horizon-hanging clouds... After a minute or two, it dawned on me that a single, vertical strip of cloud wasn't moving - it was Comet Lovejoy! Though there was cloud cover, it was still discernable by eye (though apparently, not by camera?). What a fabulous Christmas present! :thumbsup:

Best bit was... having failed to notice my alarm going off at 3am every morning, my granny, who was staying with us told me that "someone told her there's something in the sky at the moment that doesn't happen very often!" Good spotting, Gran :D

[southern 40]

weather gods were with me this morning a nice clear sky and no wind , comet sure has changed since last time i saw it before christmas ,hard to pick the end , tried inverting to bring it out but not much improvement
canon 20D. 21mm. 35secs. tripod

[renormalised]

Nice shots:)

[glenc]

The tail is about 31 degrees in southern 40's inverted shot.

[southern 40]

thks for the info Glen i was wondering how long the tail was

[ath]

Hi Everyone,

My name's Andrew and I've been monitoring this thread intensely for almost a week now and am wrapped to be able to finally contribute to it.

After 5 consecutive days of setting out to see Comet Lovejoy without any success, I finally had some clear skies at my disposal last night. :D At first it didn't look promising, but I headed down to the Providence Ponds Flora/Fauna reserve (15kms out of Stratford, Vic) as I had done for the 4 nights previous and I was amazed to find that it cleared just at the right time! (about 3.00am-ish). For about 25 minutes she was a beautiful sight.

By 4.15am she was was no longer visible, kangaroos were stalking me and the mossies were eating me alive so I called it a night and began my long walk back home through the forest. It was totally worth it. Wish I had seen it when it was brighter, but I consider myself lucky to have seen her at all.

Thanks to everyone here for all the info, I wouldn't have been as determined/inspired to see it without something like this thread to point me in the right direction (literally ;)). Thanks heaps!! This site is a great resource.

Attached is my photographic efforts (the red line in the first pic is a helicopter that passed by during the exposure.

A bit of post processing was done in Lightroom, mostly to remove noise.

Cheers,

Andrew

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Andrew:)

Like the one with the chopper trail :)

[CometGuy]

As per an earlier post, I pointed out the similarity to the Great Comets of 1880 amd 1887. It does seem to be following this trend with the tail extending but getting rapidly fainter. I see John Drummond photographed nearly 40 degrees of very faint tail this morning!

In the meantime I couldn't help but have a chuckle at the Solar System imaging forum! see attached image...

[Liz]

:lol::lol::lol:

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Colin,

when I compare your two consecutive wide shots I am convinced that the latest one shows the end of the tail overlaying the Milkyway background just above and to the right of Epsilon Centauri. As mentioned by Terry earlier, John Drummond took a picutre of just the end of the tail in order to better gauge where it ends. That was my main reason for asking if you had any close-up shots.

Southern 40's shots just stop at the point I am referring to, so that makes it a bit trickier to determine things.

I agree with Terry. It seems that these Kreutz family members can follow a set of possible scenarios or a variation of them. Some of the photos taken since the beginning of last week, and kindly displayed on this excellent forum, show this comet has many features seen in the most famous Kreutz members, like the shrouds around 1882 Sept., and the spiralling plumes travelling up the tail a la Ikeya-Seki.

The thing that I like a lot about observing Great Comets at their best is the tangible connection with our ancestors who, without the distractions of modern life, were more in awe of these itinerant visitors than many are today. That is not to say that modern people don't care. The impromptu crowds that gathered to witness McNaught, and who have also dragged themselves from a comfortable bed this time are testimony to that.

Cheers

Coops

[renormalised]

True Ian, but there are far many more who don't even look up and haven't a clue what lies above their heads. Some wouldn't even know whether a pigeon dropped a load on their heads!!!:):P

[Rob_K]

Had great views in dark skies this morning (27 Dec). Despite dimming off considerably since my last view on the 24th, the comet was much longer and still an inspiring sight! I could see about 33-deg of tail naked-eye, to about level with halfway between the top Pointer & the Cross. Shots showed very faint extension perhaps out to 38-deg or so. Images here:

Overall view, 4:00am (17:00, 26 Dec UT) - Canon 400D, 18mm, 3 x 2 min, ISO 1600, F/4.5:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W326Dec201117-00UT18mmfullredsm.jpg

Head of comet:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W326Dec201116-43UTcometheadcompsm.jpg

First 10-deg of tail:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W326Dec201116-28UTtextcompsm.jpg

18-deg section of tail:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W326Dec201115-50UTtailcompsm.jpg

Small section of tail at 200mm zoom, showing no structure:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W326Dec2011200mmtailtextbsm.jp g
Compare with 200mm tail shot on 24 Dec (23 Dec UT):
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W323Dec2011tailadjtextsm-1.jpg

Cheers -

[renormalised]

Nice shots Rob :)

I was just looking at the close up of the head of the comet. I don't know if it's just my eyes or it's actually there, but it looks like the nucleus of the comet may have broken up into 5 or so "string of pearl" segments. You can see a very faint trail of dots aligned up behind one another right near the front of the head. Could just be an artifact of processing (or my eyes like I said :)), but there maybe something there.

Really needs a bigger scope to check it out.

[Rob_K]

Thanks Carl. Yes, I noticed those, and they appear in each of the three subs that were stacked to produce this. There was very slight comet movement between each sub (a couple of pixels). I was going to make a stack on the comet head but as you can see it's very difficult to pick a point (a difficulty which has apparently made precise astrometry a problem). So I stacked on the stars. If those dots were part of the comet they would have gone an obvious bean shape. They didn't so they must be a chance alignment of underlying field stars. :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[Rob_K]

LOL, I was going to double-check with a DSS plate but never got around to it. Hey, it's Christmas!! :D :P

Cheers

[renormalised]

Just did a quick calculation based on some guesstimate figures....if the comet is, at present, roughly 0.5AU from us (say 45 million miles) and from your close up that "string" is 5' long seen from that distance, from the front to the back, the string of "objects" is 65,450 miles in length.

[renormalised]

It's hard to tell if some of those dots are bean shaped or not...they're so small...and that head is pretty crowded with stuff. You'd expect some change in the shape of the objects. That's why it's probably best to keep it in mind in any case and nail it for good by getting a bigger scope onto the task. You're probably correct in saying it's most likely just a chance alignment of stars, but you never know :)

[swannies1983]

Another cloudy morning! One cloud free morning over this whole comet period. Yeah this is summer in Adelaide! Missed two lunar eclipses and now the comet due to cloud. Adelaide isn't part of the tropics now is it?...ppfftt :rofl:

[mishku]

I braved the clouds in the hope that I might be able to shoot through a suckerhole or two... no joy!! How did everyone else go? Is it too late, do you think?

[swannies1983]

I take it back as the clouds have cleared. Yep, faded away quite a bit since the last time I saw it (24th). Can still see it with the naked eye, but not the two tails.

[swannies1983]

Need a dark sky to see it now. Even then it will bee too hard to see in a few days.

[Astroman]

I want to go out at least 1 more time and shoot it again... close up of course :D still working on my mounts back lash problem, but maybe getting closer... would have tested it last night but was getting eaten alive my mozzies... Didnt go out this morning, needed to catch up on some sleep and didn't want to walk around like a zombie again...

BTW those string of stars on the close-up, are stars, I have them on my images also..in a different position, DSS and Skymap Pro confirm they are just regular old stars... http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=106266

[Liz]

THICK cloud in Townsville, which I knew,so another sleep in, maybe tomorrow, but have my doubts. :shrug:

Interesting re the nucleus fragments!!

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Rob K and Carl,

that feature you've picked up with the beading of the nucleus is not strictly a Kreutz Family trait, but my old mate Rod Austin in New Plymouth pointed out to me yesterday that the September 1882 comet was also known as, 'The String Of Pearls Comet,' for that same reason. The fracturing of that famous comet and its unusual geometery saw up to 8 mini comets shed from the main nucleus and fall by the wayside. These appeared several degrees to the left and below the coma as the comet backed away from the sun.

I don't think there will be too many reports from this side of the ditch until after New Years. A large mass of sub-tropical cloud has descended from off the Queensland coast, and the brilliant high that covered us for nearly ten days is acting as a blocker to the east of us ensuring the low will stick around for nearly a week. Seeing how it 3 times the size of NZ there will be nowhere to run to.

I've attached a montage of three shots from yesterday morning to show from the horizon up to Crux. The widest lense on the Canon 10D I'm using is only a 35mm, which is probably the equivalent to a standard lense. My mate Stephen Chadwick stitched them together for me. Not the greatest shot around but a good rendition of the visual impression I'll never forget.

Details: 35mm, f/4.5, 1 minute, ISO 800. Taken from the Tararua District west of Eketahuna (not to be confused with Etamoogah!).

Cheers

Coops

[Rob_K]

There are no nucleus fragments. They're stars. I pointed this out earlier in response to Carl's enquiry and Astroman confirmed it.

Cheers -

[renormalised]

Ekatahuna....Etamoogah, same difference!!!:):P If we can't see the comet, just so long as there's a good pub there, I won't mind:):):P

[Astroman]

Agreed, I had a look at both my close-ups and cannot see any condensed objects within the nucleus, only background stars..

[cstocky]

Well, it was finally clear here this morning. I've attached a median of 8 x 20-30s photos (slightly cropped). The ISS can be see near the bottom. Taken with Canon 40D, 24-105 at 24mm f4, ISO1600. The tail is at least 27.5deg long! :)

Cheers,
Chris

[renormalised]

Nice shot, Chris:)

[andyc]

So after a cloudy and stormy Christmas, I decided to have a go last night despite frequent bands of cloud coming across. Quite transparent skies in the breaks, for suburban Melbourne, LMC quite easy to unaided eye and good telescope views of DSOs. Thought I'd risk staying up even with the frequent clouds, and was rewarded with bigger breaks after 3:30.
In the 14x70 binoculars, I could see a pale vertical streak stretching over about 12deg., narrowest at the base, maybe a degree wide at it's brightest point jus north of a bright star cluster (guess S Normae cluster but had no chart at the time). No sign of a head or even brightening to the head end, though low altitude might have dimmed the lowest part. Much harder than I thought it would be but happy to see it at last! :D Will be interesting if the Milky Way is reducing contrast, or if the comet is just getting v faint / low surface brightness.
And it was visible to the naked eye ... just! The clouds were gone at 4am), and only with averted vision, there was the palest streak running straight up, maybe 7-10deg worth. Milky Way was only clear overhead, but there was no doubt I could see Comet Lovejoy, I repeated the observation a good number of times and checked the position of the streak with binos. The naked-eye portion was roughly the brightest bit in binos. At least a 9/10 for visual difficulty from my location, but am well happy to have seen it before it fades too much :). I'll need darker skies to see it naked-eye from now on!
andy

[MLParkinson]

Christmas morning I travelled to Curra Moors in Royal National Park to look at Comet Lovejoy. Clear nights have been very rare where I live, so I just had to take advantage of the opening in the clouds:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlparkinson/6571844699/in/set-72157628567483681/

It must be very rare that one can use a 14 mm lens to photograph a comet through fog in heavily light polluted skies, and still obtain a reasonable image.

Shame about the endless cloudy conditions. I think that by the time I can look at the comet again it will be diminutive.

Thanks, Murray

[kinetic]

This set from this morning, suburban Adelaide.
Blue halos (cheap glass)!

Cloud teased me most of the night then cleared like a miracle about 02:00-02:50am and then again at 03:27 to dawn.

Pentax DSLR / 18-55mm lens at 26mm / f5.6 / 800ASA/ 30 sec tracked.

Steve

[renormalised]

Ripper image, Murray!!!!:):)

Second one's even better!!!!.

Welcome to IIS:):):)

[renormalised]

Nice shot Steve:)

She's starting to fade off quite quick now.

[renormalised]

No mate, your shot doesn't have the resolution whereas Rob's has. There's a very thin "spine" right up near the head of the comet, just behind the hood. In it are very, very small points of light that are stretched out along the spine, back towards the tail end of the head. You couldn't take any accurate astrometric reading off these, they're just too small. Rob McNaught spoke to Les (Dalrymple) about this and was complaining about how hard the readings off the head were:):). He can see the spine running back from the head of the comet. I'm waiting on an email from Gabriel Brammer at Paranal, to see if he was able to get a look at the head to see what was there. But hotmail has decided to take a holiday and I can't access my email!!!!.

[glenc]

Here is a picture from Dr Graeme White, the man who found the last SunGrazer.
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/comet-lights-up-sky/2403727.aspx?src=email

"THOSE who stayed up late to watch for Santa on Saturday night were in for a treat as a new 'Christmas star' lit up the skies above the Riverina about 4am.
Wagga's two wise men, directors of the Wagga Observatory Dr Graeme White and Michael Maher, watched on from a location overlooking Borambola, south of Wagga, as Comet Lovejoy illuminated the morning twilight, much like the Christmas star observed at the birth of Christ.
Comet Lovejoy, a sungrazer that was discovered by Terry Lovejoy on Sunday, November 27, has made the trip around the sun and is now visible in the morning twilight, before it fades away in the sunlight.
"Terry Lovejoys's comet is the first sungrazer to be discovered from ground- based observations since the one that I discovered some 40 years ago," Dr White said."

[renormalised]

Know Graeme fairly well:) Good to see him in the news:)

[kinetic]

This is a bit of a test that I've had ongoing for a few nights now.
Last night I finally got a chance to try it out.

Nothing new, I simply put my old SLR (film) 80-200mm lens
on to my QHY8 with an adaptor I made on the lathe.
Marc (multiweb) inspired me to try this, he consistently gets
lovely pinpoint stars at these FOVs , albeit with a QHY9 mono, similar
lenses and Ha Filter....but I was mainly after the FOV.

The stars are nice enough shapes 2 stops down from wide open.
The homemade GEM and worm tracked beautifully, all I needed was
for Mr Lovejoy's comet to climb high enough over my roof.....and
the clewds to co-operate.

This is 1hr and 10 mins exposure of part of the tail, stretching almost
to Alpha Cent.

Steve

[Astroman]

Thanks for the info Carl, not sure I am seeing what your seeing then, any way of you being able to show the points you describe? I have seen something on Robs images that is different to mine, but they look more like an image artefact to me (could be wrong). All other points match well for known stars in the field. I am not doubting the objects but I would like to see what you are seeing, maybe there is something there.

[renormalised]

Have a look at the image inset on Rob's pic. You'll see a bright star near the head of the comet on the lower part of the head and then to the upper right of there a very dim "star". Just above that, there's a very thin line running from near the front of the head going back to where the tail starts. In it, you'll see some very faint "blobs" that are aligned along that line. In the main pic, you can see the spine a bit more clearly.

That's why I'd like to see if the guys at Paranal can train a scope onto the head to see if there is something there. I hope there is:)

[Rob_K]

Oh for crying out loud, THERE ARE NO FRAGMENTS showing in my image. The two main culprits, showing white, are stars. Two others are artefacts, tufts of coloured noise showing in only one sub. Their faint reddish colour in the stack is a dead giveaway when you see it in RGB DSLR shots. I sorted all this out yesterday morning first thing although I didn't bother identifying the star designations because I knew they were stars, not part of the comet. Please see attached image:

Cheers -

[renormalised]

That's all you had to post in the first place, Rob, to clear it up. If they're stars, then that's what they are. I said as much in an earlier post. No need to get upset about it!!!.

I wasn't interested in the rest of the objects you identified there....I had no qualms about what they were, just those near the head in that line.

In any case, I've politely asked Terry could he rustle up another comet for us, around June/July, but something a bit larger so it puts on a really, really awesome display and then we won't mistake any "problems" with the nucleus:):):P:P

[Rudi]

Photographed from Kiama, NSW. This was the best I've seen it, and I've had nothing but overcast skies since then. :(


http://rudiphoto.net/img/s11/v33/p911438292.jpg

http://rudiphoto.net/img/s3/v24/p815348133.jpg

http://rudiphoto.net/img/s3/v41/p545563018.jpg

http://rudiphoto.net/img/s11/v36/p964400125.jpg


In the last photo, below, you can see Kiama Lighthouse on the left, comet Lovejoy on the right, in the rapidly brightening morning sky. What a show!

http://rudiphoto.net/img/s3/v39/p677782113.jpg

More photos of Christmas Comet Lovejoy can be seen here: http://rudiphoto.net/christmas-comet

[Phil Hart]

here are some images i captured yesterday morning from the gippsland lakes where i'm supposed to be concentrating on being camp director.. 30 kids arrive tomorrow!

bright green airglow visible in first image (just 30 seconds). seems much less obvious in the longer exposure (5 mins). captured the extent of the tail other people were referring to as well.

was much fainter this morning and only got a few shots through some short gaps and haven't processed any.

have setup gear tonight and hope it will catch the comet without me having to get up!

cheers
Phil

[Adelastro1]

Great shots Phil. I've been waiting for you to post some more! It sure does stand out nicely in the long exposures. I had the same green airglow the last couple of nights too.

"have setup gear tonight and hope it will catch the comet without me having to get up!" - you lazy bugger! Stay up and tend to your equipment like the rest of have to! haha. :D Half your luck... although there's something wondrous just standing there staring at the comet rather than your eyelids! I don't have 30 kids to look after though...

And great shots Rudi - love the way you framed them with the trees.

[Adelastro1]

Here are some more 'arty' shots from the morning of the 27th that I posted in another thread. I noticed that there was a green glow on the horizon showing up in the first hour or so of photos that I took, which is probably airglow. Later images didn't show it at all. All processed in PS5. #2 was processed from RAW file while others were jpg.

#1 ISO 6400, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#2 ISO 6400, 30 sec, f4 at 22mm
#3 ISO 6400, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#4 ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#5 ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#6 is a stack of 6 images to show the full ISS transit, ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm.

[Ronnie]

Is the time for viewing still 3am SA time ?

As it looks like we might finally have a clear sky

MTIA

[Adelastro1]

If you have a clear unobstructed horizon below the pointers you'll see it right now! If you don't, then wait for it to rise a little at about 3am...

[glenc]

The tail is about 26 degrees long this morning. It is hard to tell where it ends because the tail ends in front of the milky way.
It is easy to see the tail to the right of alpha Cen, and the tail can be seen to the tight of beta Cen, but that is not easy. The comet is fading.
I observed with 7x50 binoculars, moving them back and forth across the tail.

[Adelastro1]

This set may be the last photos I'll take as I need some normal night-time sleep now! And I've probably taken enough shots at this location!
I have a time lapse from this set that I'll post when I work out how..

#5 shows the ISS passing in a 30 sec exposure
#6 is a stack of 7 images to produce the complete ISS transit
#7 A stack of 100 30sec images. Although the comet can't be seen, it is there! The time lapse I will post is based on an extended set of images from this set.

[kinetic]

There is so much in crap data. (blue halos on stars)

This is set 1 of 2 this morning with the Pentax DSLR tracked.
A stack, then a Keller curve, then extract luminance..and a star tweak.
Negative shows the extent of the tail.

Seeing was better this morning in Adelaide, transparency was better.
It shows, comparing this morning's to yesterday's.
Glen C is dead right, the tail does extend past Beta Cent!
They must be good binocs, and well trained eyes Glen :thumbsup:

Edit: added set 2. 03:31am-04:31am local

If you squint at the first colour shot until only Alpha and Beta Cent are
visible, that's about what the comet looked like from suburban Adelaide.


Steve

[kinetic]

And finally, set 3, the last set which includes twilight and
the comet head finally showing above the house.
That TV antenna HAS to go :)

Steve

[Phil Hart]

Great stuff Wayne. #5 is my favourite.. beautiful composition.

cheers
Phil

[renormalised]

Wayne, you've produced a series of exceptional shots over all the days you've been out to Poocher....well done:):)

[Astroman]

Beaut images guys, really well done..

I went out last night but for some reason my camera decided not to play nicely, I didn't realise this until I had downloaded the images onto the computer, sigh...

here is a rough stack of 42 images each 1 minute long. Stacked in DSS. Artefacts were caused by the field rotation during the course of the exposures. Comet is still showing a nice little central bar. Something that was visible naked eye from where I was shooting from. This will be my last night out with the comet so I am happy with what I have got so far.

Oh and here is another image of me watching the comet...

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Andrew:)

Actually, I think that first shot looks quite effective. Looks like that "pencil drawing" effect you can get in many image software packages:):)

The second shot isn't quite right...you need to be doing something wacky in the shot to make it look good:):):P:P

[kinetic]

I don't agree, the shot speaks volumes for me.:thumbsup:
Great work Andrew

Steve

[renormalised]

Steve, I wasn't being serious:)

[cstocky]

Clear again this morning. The attached photo is a median combine of 8 x 30s shots at 3200ASA 24mm f4 (slightly cropped). The Southern Cross is at the top.

Cheers,
Chris

[renormalised]

Good shot, Chris!!:)

[Astroman]

Thanks guys...

[cstocky]

Thanks Carl.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Phil and Carl. I'll keep that in mind Phil! ;)

And nice shots Andrew!

[Astroman]

Thanks Wayne

[mithrandir]

According to CdC using the latest elements Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) becomes circumpolar tonight (2011-12-29) for Sydney (33:43S) and all points south.

Newcastle (32:55S) 2011-12-30 (rises and sets at midnight)
Port Macquarie (31:26S) 2011-12-30
Brisbane (27:30S) 2012-01-01
Rockhampton (23:23S) 2012-01-02 (rises and sets at midnight)
Mackay (21:09S) 2012-01-03
Townsville (19:15S) 2012-01-04
Cairns (16:55S) 2012-01-05
Darwin (12:28S) 2012-01-06

It will pass with 2 deg of the SCP on 2012-01-09

[colinmlegg]

Great shots guys!

Clouds drove me out of Esperance, with my last view being the morning of the 27th. Back in Perth now, so probably won't see it again unless something unexpected happens :(

Just processed a timelapse I did on the 27th. This one covers almost 5 hours of comet, from around 10.28 pm -> 3.17 am. For this I tracked the milky way and comet in azimuth only to get maximum coverage. Lotsa airglow visible. Also, if you look carefully in the 2nd half, once the head rises, it is possible to track the comets movement against the stars.

Further details in the vimeo comments.

http://vimeo.com/34314682


The last few days have been alot of fun! Just want to say many thanks to everyone on the forum, in particular Ian Cooper, for the great observation reports, images and discussions. Been great.

[Astroman]

Very nice Colin, great timelapse.

[fringe_dweller]

thursday morning 29th, only second time seen This famous comet of impeccable pedigree! - dark site - first pic a pano of 3 stitched single 30 sec shots 50mm f1.4@f1.4 800 tripod 350D - wide shot the original old skanky kit lens @18mm f4.5 152 secs tripod

easy 30 plus d naked eye tail, not something you see too often! saw zodiacal light pretty awesome havent seen that in a while! lots of meteors!?
cheers

[renormalised]

Nice shots Kearn:):)

[fringe_dweller]

Thankyou Carl! :)

[Suzy]

Please take a look here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=84847) at the tribute video I've made of comet Lovejoy. :D
I've used some of the pics from this thread (more explained on link supplied).

If you have any comments etc would you please be kind enough to post on the thread for which I've supplied the link for instead of here. Thanks! :)

[Ian Cooper]

Thanks to Chris, Andrew, Steve and Kearn for today's images. They all confirm the note I sent to John Drummond today regarding his image from Gisborne, N.Z. I felt the tail went just beyond Beta Centauri on his pic compared to one he had taken the day before. On that basis I plotted the comet's tail on Megastar to compute a length of 24.7, say 25 degrees.

This confirms the tail is shortening at a rate somewhat comparable to it's growth rate earlier this week. I managed to see part of the tail, the ten degrees below Alpha Cen, through thickening haze at 2.30 a.m. this morning. I was surprised at how bright that piece was. Due to the haze and the proximity, no pun intended, of The Pointers, it was too hard to tell by eye if the tail carried on. Looks like Kearn had the perfect conditions.

Colin, thanks verymuch for your kind thoughts. It has been an absolute pleasure to view all of your fine efforts to record this event for posterity. That goes for all of the excellent contributions to this forum over the past ten days. The story isn't over yet. We have until atleast next Friday morning before the Big White Lady starts taking over the entire stage for a few days.

Thinking about it, has there ever been a period where the best part of a Great Comet's apparition coincided so perfectly with the waxing and waning of the Moon? A good part of McNaught's display was lost to Moonlight at the wrong time. Perhaps Hyakutake fits the bill as much as Terry's latest as far as that is concerned?t certainly has helped not having to account for Selene!

Cheers

Coops

[Astroman]

Brilliantly written Ian. Suzi, had a look and posted, nice work also.

[swannies1983]

Love that timelaspse. Well done!

[glenc]

With the naked eye and 7x50 binoculars I thought the 26 degree long tail ended at the mag 4.7 star SAO 252531 which is 3.5 degrees west of beta Cen.
See post #369 in this thread.

[pixelsaurus]

I was living in Dorkland at the time and a good part of McNaught's display was lost to rain and cloud. In fact I only saw McNaught on 4 seperate occasions and only 2 of these were cloud free

[colinmlegg]

Thanks Andrew, Dan, Ian and Carl for the comments.

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Coops, I am pretty rusty at comet obs! and perhaps a little slaphazard in my tail guesstimates of late, (i know i was a few degrees over last friday morning perhaps) i was just using the waving the old fist at extended arms length method :ashamed:, ...i wasnt posting to proper cometobs type site, and so wasnt thinking how they might go on the permanent record and affect historical stats .. having said that .. i'm pretty happy to say the last dimmer part of the tail was visible to my eyes up to the coalsack as it climbed into darker skies, .. i dont have a planetarium program on this computer anylonger, and my charts are packed away .. but i know the FOV of my 50mm lens on that camera is about 25d, and tail is certainly longer than that, even if it isnt the brighter section of tail.. i was at nearly 36 d south in 360degree lightdome free dark skies when making obs ..

re McNaught in jan '07 , in Adelaide we had horrendous conditions during best few days of apparition ,, steelmelting heatwave, great storms, bushfires, blinding blanket bushfire smoke from victoria - it was an arsonists paradise! i am on record describing it as apocalyptic conditions back in old threads of the day, but days either side were much better
.. i'm also more of a fan of great comets being in pristine dark skies, as opposed to bright twilight, or variations on twilight, from head to tail tip preferably :)

[andyc]

Stunning timelapse there Colin! Well worth the full screeen treatment :)

[Adelastro1]

Fantastic time lapse Colin! You've inspired me to do another one, this time longer, before I head back to the big smoke after my holidays!
What program did you use to put them together into the video? Im finding it hard to find one that dpits a file i can view! And did you shoot them in RAW or just jpg?

[colinmlegg]

Thanks Andy, Wayne.

Wayne, best to shoot RAW if you have a big enough card. I find that gives me more options later in post. I use After Effects for compiling the video, but other options include Quicktime Pro and Virtual Dub (among others). With After Effects you can ingest the RAW files direct, but it's more expensive than the others. Alternatively, you can convert the RAWs to 16 bit Tiff and ingest those. The key to good quality video is to work with the best material for as long as possible and compress only at the last step. Hope that helps.

[glenc]

I just had a look at Comet Lovejoy with 7x50 binoculars. The 26 degree tail (in pa 230) seems to end near the mag 5.8 star SAO 252400.
The tail is fainter than the Norma Star Cloud.

[kinetic]

Apologies for the blue halos again on the cheap std lens/ Pentax DSLR.
This is the 2nd set of two sets this morning, suburban Adelaide.
This comet aint over yet...at least photographically.

Glen's assessment seems spot on again (previous thread):thumbsup:

Steve

[Phil Hart]

Colin.. do you shoot full size RAW for timelapse or sRAW? it's a serious battle trying to shoot full RAW all the time especially for longer sequences.. big headaches!

Wayne.. Sony Vegas is another option that's quite capable but cheaper than After Effects. I believe the latest versions can work with RAW files too. The Pros tend to use After Effects though..

Also check out the Lightroom plug-in LR Timelapse. It helps you interpolate adjustments across a set of RAW images. Would it make it possible to use VirtualDub after exporting a set of JPGs from LR having done most of your adjutments there..

Phil

[ZeroID]

:sadeyes: Since my couple of pix late last week we ain't seen blue sky here, let alone a comet !!
Currently persistiticating down after a week of low grey all sky nebula.
I've had the tracking camera mount loaded to go in the garage and I think it will probably rust away before it sees any sky again.
Thanks to all the peeps posting cool comet pix but boy is this frustrating !!!! :shrug: :rolleyes:

[Liz]

Yes, thank you all for the ongoing wonderful images and time lapses.

Also has been clouded out up here for quite awhile. Glad I was able to see the comet and get some images at its brightest. :)

Comet Lovejoy is about its make its closest approach to us (early January), then adios amigo. :sadeyes: :sad:

What a joy it has been though, one of my big highlights for the year, and some super images from everyone, including Colin, Grahame, Wayne, Ian, Andrew, Lester, Paul, Rob, Kearn, Terry ... and maaaaannny more.

This has been a great thread with lots of interesting info, big thanks to Ian and co for keeping us beginners informed!! :thanx:

[Astroman]

Good work everyone, I am happy, I won a weekly contest with one of my images :) got a full licenced copy of BackyardEOS for my sleepless efforts, worth it I think.

[renormalised]

See....these images of ours are paying off:) Good one, Andrew!!:)

[renormalised]

Wouldn't want to know Liz....just looked out the window....50 or so km away it's bright blue sky!!!!. Here, wall to wall cloud!!!!.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Glen,

cheers for that observation. That peice of Norma Starcloud has been a handy benchmark to compare the tail brightness with. Kinetic's shots from this morning show it well.

Kearn,

mate I thought that we had it bad here in Jan '07. The least amount of sunshine hours for a January in the 84 year record! Your conditions sound like something out of Dante's Inferno! I clocked up about 1,000 km of travelling trying to find holes in the clouds that January.

No worries about the tail estimates that people are putting in. It is good to have the visual and the technical estimates thrown in to the mix. I believe in alerting people to the fact that the tail maybe longer than the eye can see. Great to see that you could see it out to the Coal Sack. I was hoping that the 'black window' in the Milkyway would come into play around now.

Looks like I'll be waiting until Monday night before I get another look. I'll be able to do some serious tracking on this now that the head is above my power lines at home.

Cheers,

Coops

[glenc]

I think the tail is more than 26 degrees in Steve's image because the tail goes off the top of the image.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=106533&d=1325189464

[Rob_K]

That's a good image! :thumbsup: The tail appeared to extend right to the edge of the Coal Sack in my images this morning, or about 29-deg, but nothing clear beyond that. No early morning for me, just a very late night. Watched the tail rising, but couldn't see anything positive visually beyond a point about the distance between A- to B-Cent below Alpha Centauri. Assuming it maintained brightness all the way down that would be 14-deg visually. Above that point there were glimpses but I certainly wouldn't be confident I was seeing anything other than a strip of Milky Way glow.

I've seen a report that the tail was clearly visible crossing the south side of the Coal Sack but I think that this was an illusion, as there's a hook of brighter sky in there that is visible anytime. I could see it clearly, apparently in line with the tail, but it's the strip that defines the beak of the Emu!

Here's my shots, deep images on the fainter parts of the tail. First a composite at 55mm:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W329Dec2011tailsectcompsm.jpg

Second, crop from an 18mm shot, 3x3 min at ISO 1600:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W329Dec201114-47UT18mmcrop.jpg

Third, three small gif animations, blinking this morning's field against base images to show the extent of the dim ghostly tail, which is difficult to gauge in the above shots:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanimc29Dec11.gif
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanima29Dec11.gif
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanima29Dec11.gif

Cheers -

[kinetic]

Glen,
here is a prelim panorama of this mornings(30th) results
with the QHY-8 and 80-200mm lens in the observatory.
Cropping/resizing/stitching is very cruel on resolution and
these images are a poor reflection of the full size FITS.

They do show the extent of the tail though, albeit thru suburban skies.

Edit: set 1 and 2 negatives added

Steve

[colinmlegg]

Phil - yes RAW, mainly for future proofing. Agree it's a pita to deal with, but I picked up some 'cheaper' Transcend 64 Gig cards and 2 TB hard drives for storage. For any sort of fancy processing like stabilization, time remapping, etc. I use lower quality jpeg proxies, then replace with RAW for the final render. One other advantage of RAW over sRAW is Adobe ACR does a much better job of removing hot pixels. So much so I don't bother with dark frames.

Apologies to others for straying off topic.

[glenc]

I agree with Rob, the tail goes to the edge of the Coal Sack, nearly 30 degrees. The blinking image shows it well.
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanimc29Dec11.gif

[Outbackmanyep]

Didn't the McNaught thread we had on here in 2007 go past 100 pages?

[Rob_K]

Here's another process of my 55mm images, with high contrast. Pretty startling really, brings the faint tail up well:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W329Dec2011highcontsm.jpg

Shows it out to almost 32 degrees from the comet head (not in view). Hard to imagine there's not some extension on the other side of the Coal Sack, but is a very bright area that any extension would have been in. Didn't get any 55mm data on the other side of the Coal Sack, and my 18mm image didn't respond well to contrast adjustment.

Cheers -

[kinetic]

A short video of my 29/30 Dec DSLR stuff.
Slight curve added to frames before movie was made.
location was my backyard, suburban Adelaide.
http://youtu.be/TpJuqtITcrU

Steve

[colinmlegg]

Inspired by the animated gifs of Rob and Glen I decided to try one myself. Using the 2 14mm shots I previously posted from the 26th and 27th.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb379/colinmlegg/Comet_Lovejoy_Panorama3_0002.gif

Ian, your analysis was spot on re. the tail of the 27th. It's clear it extends at least half way between pointers and coal sack, if not further.

[cstocky]

Great animation Colin! I'd say that the tail is almost in line with Alpha and Beta Crucis! In my photo of the 28th you can definitely see the end of the tail near to the Coal Sack, however I've not tried to blink the image to see just how far it does extend. Hopefully I can snag another picture in the morning - fog is forecast though :(.

Cheers,
Chris

[Phil Hart]

here's a quick process of one of my shots from this morning. i've got my Vixen GP-DX mount on the beach here at Camp Cooinda and been setting up cameras etc in the evening and letting it all run overnight and then picking up cameras again in the morning to see what i got.

pretty cloudy last night but got this shot through a not very convincing gap in the cloud. contrast against darker sky soon will be good if it can just hang in there..

cheers
phil

[cstocky]

Nice shot Phil. Unfortunately the cloud was solid here this morning.:mad2:

[jjjnettie]

Definitely one of the better shots of the comet Phil. But boy o boy it's fading fast.

[kinetic]

Set 1 of my two DSLR sets..
Tail extends maybe past the Coal Sack in mine too...maybe.
Great discussion.:thumbsup:

Steve

[Outbackmanyep]

I can see in Phil's image that the tail past the coalsack is visible, but only just, the naked eye probably won't show this detail though unless the comet moves into a more contrasty sky.

[callingrohit]

Following are my final processed shots of the comet taken on 25th and 26th Dec -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myshutterworld/6599991017/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myshutterworld/6599986491/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myshutterworld/6599976547/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myshutterworld/6599969697/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myshutterworld/6599959975/

Its been heavily clouded in Brisbane since last 2-3 days so I don't think I will be even able to see it now. Thank god I was in Hervey Bay for Christmas and was able to view this comet with naked eyes.

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Vivek:):)

[callingrohit]

Thanks Carl.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks for the info Colin and Phil. I'm shooting more and more in RAW now - I just need to get more proficient in processing them! I'll have a look at the software you suggested. It's something I'd certainly like to do more of.

Thank you Liz for including me in that list of great photographers! And i agree, many fantastic images of the comet.

[Adelastro1]

Here's another shot from last night's shoot (and final??). I had a nice Iridium flare (presumably) pass through the middle of the image too! This is a stack of 2 images because the flare path was spread over both - indicating it probably had a long transit time therefore wouldn't have been a comet since the images are 30 sec each with 3 secs in between them for the camera to write them to the disk etc. These were part of a 2 hour series I took for a timelapse but I've also stacked them into a startrail image.

The is at West Beach, Robe, SA. The lights on the landscape is due to the lighthouse almost directly behind me! Although I had misgivings when I turned up to start imaging but I think it adds to the effect.

[callingrohit]

fantastic images Wayne esp the startrail.

[mozzie]

gezzz there,s some nice photo's being taken......

i put a sketch in the visual section of the comet done on the 28th dec. here it is of a different perspective seen through my eyes..
106590

[Phil Hart]

here are shots from this morning. 4 minutes with 50mm lens @f3.2 ISO400 and 30 secs with 24mm lens @f1.8 and ISO1600.

cheers
Phil

[glenc]

Thanks Phil. Looks like the comet is running out of puff and the tail is faint above alpha Centauri.
When the comet gets away from the Milky Way it will be easier to measure the tail.

[renormalised]

Nice shots Phil:)

Yeah, I agree with Glen. We're going to have to make as much of whatever clear skies we get from now on because I don't think this comet will last too much longer. Probably a week or so.

[kinetic]

I'm excited....this morning was the first time
the head would appear above the house from the FOV of the
QHY-8 setup before twilight started......that is still to process!!!

But here is the 3rd set of 3 from the Pentax DSLR.
3rd set is head above the house (from the other side of the yard)
03:23am to 04:15am local

Steve

[CometGuy]

Nice shots Steve and Phil,

I attempted to see the comet this morning visually but no joy (bad pun :( ).

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how long it can be followed photographically.

Terry

[Rob_K]

Hi all - deep-imaged the fainter section of tail this morning (well, after midnight) and can't see much evidence of a tail beyond Beta Centauri, amazing the difference a night makes. That would still have put the tail length at 22-degrees. Here's some gif animations:

Emu, 30-31 Dec (29-30 Dec UT), cropped from 18mm shots (3x3min):
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanim29-30Dec11emu.gif

Pointers & below, 30-31 Dec, cropped from 55mm shots (3x3min). The tail gets 'cut off' right near the top of the frame as it crosses a small dark patch. Other shots show very little of substance emerging from the other side.
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanim29-30Dec11low55mm.gif

Beta Centauri (bright star bottom left) to Coal Sack, very little if anything showing:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/Gifanim29-30Dec1155mm.gif

I imaged out as far as Eta Carinae neb and couldn't see anything. I didn't wait to see the head or brighter tail rise but the tail was visible naked eye to maybe a bit beyond Alpha Centauri, averted vision on the last bit.

Cheers -

[Rob_K]

Hi Glen - I'm not so sure that's true. I suspect the fade-off has been assisted by the Milky Way although I'd like to hear some expert opinion on it. I've imaged the fainter section of the tail a bit and noticed that whenever it crosses a dark patch in the Milky Way it virtually disappears. Where the Milky Way is very bright it can also wash out the tail but maybe there's a reinforcing thing going on with the tail over the lighter glow.:shrug: If the tail behaved the same way in dark sky away from the Milky Way as it has been in passing over dark nebulae then maybe the show would have been over days ago. Ah well, time will tell if it can hang on a bit longer! :)

Cheers -

[kinetic]

Rob, Terry, all,

here is the first shot where I was able to get the FOV of the
QHY-8/ SLR lens setup in the observatory on the comet head.

I had a window of about 15 mins, with twilight well and truly underway at
the end of the short set.

edit: added final mosaic of all 4 sets stitched. very distorted due to autostitch probs.


Steve

[Crusader]

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.

[fringe_dweller]

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

link here

http://soundcloud.com/rusty-ryder/ballad-of-comet-lovejoy

immortalised in song! :)

[Rob_K]

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/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W331Dec201113-54UTfulladjbsm.jpg (http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W331Dec201113-54UTfulladjb\sm.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.

Cheers -

[naskies]

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.

[glenc]

On Rob's image LJ's tail reaches to alpha Muscae, that is 27 degrees.

[slt]

From Sydney's northern beaches this morning at around 4 am. Barely visible with the naked eye, but looks ok with a 30 sec exposure:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gunther2/6607928685/sizes/l

[cstocky]

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

[Phil Hart]

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.

cheers
Phil

[Lester]

Wonderful views as always from you Phil. It really is a sight to remember. All the best for 2012.

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Phil:)

I think we'll see this tail's full extent once it gets out into the slightly darker areas a little further towards the clouds. Doesn't have to go far.

[callingrohit]

Hi community,

Following is an article I found on Google talking about the visibility of Comet LoveJoy after sunset as well.

http://www.psychohistorian.org/display_article.php?id=201112251646 _comet_lovejoy_visibility.content

Not sure if this would be true for Australia as well. Can the highly experienced ones confirm ?

Thanks

[colinmlegg]

Good stuff - Steve, Chris, Rob, Phil.

Phil - gotta ask, what's that light on the lake edge? The camp? And the bioluminescence...are you seeing any this year?

WA's gone cloudy last few days, so nothing to report on the comet front. Hoping to get one more view in a day or so if the clouds hold off.

Edit: Vivek, problem in evening now is the moon. It's light will overwhelm the rapidly fading comet.

[Phil Hart]

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! :lol:

Phil

[glenc]

I especially like the second image Phil. The tail seems to end above lambda Muscae, that makes it 33 degrees long.

[naskies]

At a dark site again... it's becoming quite dim. Even the Octans are easier to spot than the comet :rofl: Still naked eye visible with direct vision, though it only looks like a search light with averted vision.

[Liz]

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.

[glenc]

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.

[Astroman]

Anyone got any more recent close up images of the head of the comet? Would like to see how it has evolved since the last time I saw it

BTW Thanks Scott (Tornado33) for the close ups :D

[cstocky]

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

[Phil Hart]

two more, from this morning Monday 2nd Jan at the Gippsland Lakes.

5DmkII
24mm, 60 secs, f1.8, ISO800
50mm, 4min, f3.2, ISO400

cheers
Phil

[Liz]

Great images Chris and Phil!!:thumbsup:

[kinetic]

This morning's results, backyard with a tracked DSLR.
Thin, high cloud spoiled the view as twilight started
but on closer view of subs, nearly all my subs from 1am onwards
had thin cloud drifting in from the NW.

Skies were still very crisp though. Could easily see the star in the Coal Sack.

Steve

[callingrohit]

Fantastic images Phil. Are these tracked using a scope or are they just captured via a DSLR ? The reason I ask is you have a 4min exposure snap and its not showing any star trail.

[Phil Hart]

The 4min shot with the 50mm is tracking (you'd really know it if it wasn't!). The 1min shot with the 24mm lens is just on fixed tripod. If I do another night, I may stick the 24mm lens on the mount as well to do longer exposure, given how faint it's getting. Off the tripod I have a sequence of shots I can turn into a timelapse one day.

Phil

[callingrohit]

thanks for replying Phil. What scope do you use ? Your polar alignment of the scope must be a quick and right at the mark to get such accurate and amazing tracked images.:thumbsup:

[Phil Hart]

No telescope involved, just my trusty old Vixen GP-DX equatorial mount. It has a polar alignment scope inside which makes polar alignment pretty easy. It's quite accurate although a 4 minute shot with a 50mm lens is not too demanding anyway.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi all,

thanks to all the contributors who have been wetting my cometery appetite whilst the sky has been wetting the ground here for the past 5 days!

It looked promising at dusk for me to finally get a chance at doing some very long exposures on our trusty tracking mount (it was used to photograph The Great Comet of 1970, Comet Bennett, by its original owner). So I hit the sack at 11 p.m. Set the alarm for moonset at 1.30a.m. I was awoken by what I thought was someone ringing my landline in the lounge at 12.30 a.m. I didn't get to the phone in time, so I went outside to find the only part of the sky that was clear was to my north east.

It didn't look at all promising at home so I loaded up the car and headed up State Highway 1 that runs up the guts of the North Island. I ended up doing a round trip of about 110 km's, but it was worth it. I actually went up on a side road that I was meant to take almost 5 years ago on a similar weather pattern when we were chasing McNaught's tail. On that night I ended up leading us down a blind valley after missing the correct turnoff by 600m! By the time that I got out the other end of the valley half of McNaught's tail was set!! Not this time though.

The spot I chose was an elevated view away from the highway on a quiet rural road. I tell you, if I hadn't known the comet was there I would easily have mistaken it as just an outlying stretch of the Milkyway, if I had noticed it at all. To both the naked-eye and binos the tail's brightness varied considerably along its length. The first 5 degrees by Atria were fairly easy to see. The next 5 weren't, then up by Musca it was bright again up to the border of Musca and Carina.

That was initially as far as I thought the tail went. After sweeping across that end and re-assessing it with the unaided-eye I think that the tail may have reached into the middle of the Diamond Cross. It was hard case because I had to blot out the light of the Eta Carina region with my hand so that I could concentrate on detecting the end of the tail!

I took 10 one minute subs, and 11 thirty second subs before cloud closed in around me. All were taken with the Canon 10D, 35mm, f/4.5, 800 iso. Included are two of the 30 second shots that picked up a very bright Iridium flare. I have done a little photo-shopping on these frames to reveal something of what I saw.

I'll be passing on my sub frames to my mate Stephen Chadwick who has the gear and the ability to make something from my efforts this morning.

If I hadn't woken early as I did, then I am sure that I wouldn't have been so keen to drive north from what I saw when I got home. Maybe I just imagined the phone call in my sleep? I am a happy chappy either way.

Best of luck to all of you.

Cheers,

Coops

[glenc]

It was cloudy here today and I was glad to see Ian's images.
The tail on Terry's comet seems to be about 29 degrees long on Ian's images. That is the distance to the mag 5.6 star SAO 256800.

[gaa_ian]

Awesome Kearn
Writing songs is what I do now too, so I really appreciate this.
Should be a hit on the Astrocamp circuit ;)
I look forward to getting together for a jam some time :thumbsup:

[CometGuy]

Thanks Steve/Phil for those QHY8 images, Coops for the images and report.

Terry

[Ian Cooper]

Hi again,

here is my mate Steve's first attempt with combining the 10 one minute subs. A great improvement. He wants me to take some dark frames tonight that might improve it a little more.

Glen you were spot on with that star. The tail was very definite up to that point, but not so certain after that.

I had to laugh at one point when I thought that clouds were starting to form over the tail. It turned out to be the dark nebulae running from Musca to Chamaeleon when I looked through the bino's!

Cheers, Coops.

[pluto]

I took some nice shots from Port Macquarie in NSW on December 25th and 26th. I think they're too big to post here so I hope it's ok to post a link to my blog: http://hughsblog.wordpress.com/category/astrophotography/
Definitely one of the most beautiful things I've seen in the sky lately!

[callingrohit]

good shots Hugh :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Hugh:)

Welcome to IIS:):)

[pluto]

Thanks guys, I've been hovering for years but finally had something to contribute :-)

[Rob_K]

Ah well, had to be done, star trail from this morning attached, 1:40am 3 Jan AEDST. :rolleyes:

'Normal' shot here, tail is looking impressive if faint.
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W302Jan201213-28UT18mmfullbadjsm.jpg

I could see it easily with averted vision extending out past Gamma Muscae (to 25-deg) and possibly almost out to the Southern Pleiades (to 32-deg) although there were some 'fortuitous' faint star alignments that led the eye that far so difficult to be sure. Lester's deep images from the last two mornings when blinked against each other strongly suggest the tail extends faintly to the top of his frames, a length of 40-deg (and probably beyond)!

Cheers -

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Rob,

you mentioned Lester's images from the last two mornings. Whereabouts can we find them?

Superb shots Hugh. Great locations.

Cheers

Coops

[Ian Cooper]

Hi again Rob,

the shot from your album highlights the star chains you mention, as well as the group of stars in the Diamond Cross near the Southern Pleiades that can make it difficult to tell if it is the tail, or just the effect of that group. A similar thing happened with Hyakutake, and that tail was 90 degrees from the Milkyway!

Cheers

Coops

[glenc]

Comet Lovejoy was naked eye this morning but only just and only parts of it.
Hugh's images are impressive.

[Ian Cooper]

The weather turned to the prevailing westerly pattern so that is bad news for us west coasters on the North Island of New Zealand. So it was over the mountains again to our alternate site at Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa. Brilliant over there. Arrived at the end of twilight and thought that I could detect some of the tail through Apus and Chamaeleon even with the Moon up. A couple hours of sleep then up before moonset. The comet was higher and once again I thought that the tail was there in the same vicinity. Once the influence of the moon was finally over my suspicions were confirmed.

I started imaging with my trusty old Nikon F film camera and a 35mm lens. The negs look good so I will get them scanned tomorrow and report back.

I was using the Nankervill Schmidt Camera mounting for tracking purposes. Using the Phoenix Astronomical Society's Canon 10D, which I have been using throughout this apparition, I was finally able to take some long, guided exposures as opposed to the limitations of the tripod. I have a similar tracking platform at home, the only trouble being that when the comet finally cleared some pesky powerlines the weather turned, so I never got the chance to take some long exposures from 40m from my back door! Instead I had to do a 300km round trip to get the desired results.

To the eye after moonset I thought I could easily follow the tail out to and just past Miaplacidus (Beta Car) in the Diamond Cross. From there I was less sure. With that in mind I took two 10 minute exposures that mostly overlap, in order to have any chance of picking up the full length of tail with the Canon 35mm lense.

In my preparations to travel over the Tararua Ranges I left a vital bit of kit behind. The remote cord that attaches to the 10D and makes for taking 'bulb' pictures that much easier was 150 km away when I needed it! Fortunately the camera on its photographic knuckle was mounted on an angle-iron bar that I was able to rest my palm on, whilst pressing down the button with my index finger. I did two 5 minute shots first before tackling two ten minute shots.

It is a bit of an act maintaining the right pressure on the button for that length of time. Some early morning mozzies took an interst in my vulnerable right hand during the 10 minute shots. I was able to chase them away quietly with my free left hand. Just goes to show that even an old hand like me should write up a checklist of essential kit for a trip like that.

Photo details are Canon 10D, 35mm @ f/4.5, 10 minutes each frame, 800 ISO. The image supplied with this post is a low res one from me playing around with the two raws in Photoshop Elements.

Looking at our forecast I don't expect to see The Great Christmas Comet of 2011 again. I only clocked up 800 km this time compared with over 1,000 km for McNaught 5 years ago chasing the great comet's tail. It has been a fantastic ride once again. I saw it on ten out of the past 17 mornings, and most of those were when it was at it's best.

I'll post the results from the film tomorrow night. Most of you may be surprised at how well that comes out too.

Cheers,

Coops

[Liz]

Wow, thankyou for that info Ian, you have done many kms, but seen this comet at its best under beautiful dark skies. Very sad to see it fading away now, but we have witnessed one amazing comet, and that will be with is forever!!

[colinmlegg]

Concur with Liz. Really enjoyed all your reports Ian and I suspect you may have clocked up more observing hours than most on this comet. Alas, I haven't seen it since the 27th, but happy with what I saw and looking forward (big time!) to the next one.

Film...lovely to see that word again. My last astro film shots were of McNaught. Switched to digital soon after. Going through a box of slides looking for hidden treasures weeks after the event is something I still miss.

[Rob_K]

Yep, fully agree with Liz. :thumbsup: Here are some of my images from the wee hours of 5 Jan, linked below. There was still a bit of moonlight in the sky but the Moon had disappeared behind the hills. 2:10am, 05 Jan local time (15:10, 04 Jan UT):
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W304Jan201215-10UT18mmfulladjred.jpg

Star trail stack, showing growing proximity of tail to South Celestial Pole:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/StartrailsW304Jan2012copycsm.jpg

Animation with my last useable image from 2 Jan UT. Extent is limited by the 2 Jan shot but tail is showing faintly out to the top of that frame, or 33-degrees. Can't be certain of anything beyond that.
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/gifanim02-04Jan2012.gif (http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/gifanim02-04Jan2012.gif)

Experiment earlier in the evening at 55mm, in bright moonlight (11:55pm on the 4th, local time). Shows what a ghost this comet is now and how hard it is to get any detail in a bright sky:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/C2011W304Jan201212-55UT55mmtext.jpg

Visually wasn't much to see with the lingering moonlight. I seemed to get some faint flashes of the tail in averted vision but nothing I could hold. I don't think that three bright stars spaced out along & close to the rough line of the tail helped.

Cheers -

[glenc]

Terry's comet was visible this morning with 20x80 binoculars at 4:30 am AEDT (17:30 UT). I traced the tail for about 16 degrees.
The comet was not visible with the naked eye or with 7x50 binoculars as far as I could tell.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Glen,

I wasn't planning on getting up this morning due to a lack of a good sleep recently, and my weather prospects weren't that great. Nature thought otherwise. I could tell by the cooler temperature that it must be a partially clear outside, and I was right.

I just missed a big gap over the comet at 3.45 a.m. local time, but there was enough clearing coming in from the west that made me think it was worth waiting around for. Finally at 4.00 a.m. (15.00 hrs U.T.) there was a break, but with some broken cloud through it so that I didn't have a perfect view.

I saw about 15 degrees from the head with averted vision, this was the brightest bit. I traced the tail up to Alpha Volantis in my 10 x 50 bino's. At that point the tail was over 2 degrees wide. My view was confirmed for me by a picture that John Drummond, of Gisborne, N.Z. posted this morning.

Cheers

Coops

[glenc]

Thanks Ian. Justin Tilbrook's image shows the tail past beta Carinae too, that is about 30 degrees.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=85212
It was starting to get light when I saw it.

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Glen,

thanks for that link to Justin's great shots from this morning. It looks to be going to the edge of the field on the second frame, which makes it about 36 degrees long.

Cheers

Coops

[Rob_K]

Missed out last night because of haze, now no Moon-free skies till Thurs 12 (tiny window after twilight) and Fri (better). What a show it's been! And what will be left of the tail of the comet when we get dark skies again?

FWIW, here's a link to my gallery of Lovejoy shots, from when it was on the NEOCP on 2 Dec (3 Dec our time) to the night before last:
https://sites.google.com/site/robsastropics/comets/comet-c-2011-w3-lovejoy

Cheers -

[Suzy]

Rob McNaught's pics of Lovejoy (http://msowww.anu.edu.au/%7Ermn/C2011W3.htm)taken from Siding Spring Observatory.
Some stunning shots here.

And David Sargeant's thoughts regarding Lovejoy's nucleus ...

[Ian Cooper]

Rob, thanks for the link to your site. A great collection on display there.

Here is my best shot on film from Thursday morning. It was taken from our eastern alternative site at Stonehenge Aotearoa, about 10 minutes south of today's terrible balloon tragedy near Carterton.

The colour picture is with my trusty old Nikon F witha 35mm lens @ f/2.8. Exposure was 15 minutes on Fuji Superia X-tra 400 film.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I left the control cord for the digital camera behind, well I also left the 8x lupe that I have to use to get a focussed view through the top down viewer on the Nikon, the original mechanism long since broken. I really wanted to frame the Pointers & Crux in with the comet, but because I was shooting blind so to speak I dare not risk not getting the comet in after travelling so far to do it!

I've added a B&W negative to show the tail to its best. There is significant vignetting at the top of the frame due to the lens being wide open.

Cheers,

Coops.

[mishku]

Coops! You are just incredible!! What an effort :thumbsup:

Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you - and thanks, Glen, for sharing your amazing ability to calculate the size of the tail as it lengthens :)

[CometGuy]

Here is closer view of the comet on the morning of January 6 (5.7 UT). The spiral galaxy is IC4633 and parts of the Integrated Flux Nebula are visible in the frame. The comet itself has moved during the exposures and this has made the central spine appear wider than it actually is. Exposure is 30 x 30 seconds with QHY9 and C8 f2.1.

Terry

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Terry,

love that shot especially that you have picked up that I.F. Nebulosity which I have cruised around in with our 20 inch Dobo a few times. I know that area around I.C. 4633 as being one of the brighter areas in that nebula. I'm surprised to see that spine still so strong in your image. That was the one thing in running around photographing your comet that I now regret not doing, and that was spending some time observing it at magnification!

I put together an album in FaceBook of my best shots from the past three weeks for all to enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.303510623018539.63509.100000 788104320&type=1&l=2763aacb77

Cheers,

Coops.

[Liz]

That is a beautiful image Terry!! like, wow, love all that nebula around the tail!! :thumbsup:

Will check out your FB images now Ian.:)

[glenc]

Thanks Coops, that is a nice series of images. :thumbsup:

[Ian Cooper]

Cheers Glen, I'm glad that you enjoyed them.

That is what I love about astronomy, a month ago this apparition was but a dream. After a hectic three weeks it now only seems like one! Atleast I have some pics to prove that it wasn't all just a dream, and I have seen my first Kreutz member.

Cheers

Coops

[SkyViking]

Some great images here, and thanks for the magnified view Terry. That was something I was hoping to see more of too.
Still can't see any signs of a distinct nucleus, I wonder where it is hiding.

[fringe_dweller]

Gday Ian, wow thanks for that, another writer! its all good clean fun eh mate, much like this awesome comet apparition we have had! jam is a good idea .. shoot me a email when ya in town! :)

[Lester]

Hi all,

Got a small window tonight to try for the comet. Twenty seconds was as long as I could expose for without fogging the image completely. Getting close to the LMC. 24mm lens at F1.4.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Comet%20images/19c6dab5.jpg

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Lester,

if I hadn't seen your picture I may have doubted what I saw tonight. The local forecast was for thunderstorms by dark so I was surprised to get a call from my old mate Noel Munford in the city saying how clear the sky was. I quickly ended the conversation so I could go out and get a look before the rising moon became too dominant. It was 9.25 U.T. (10.25 Daylight Time) and the moon had only been up for 5 minutes.

It was a hard case situation with the solar twilight receeding in the west and the lunar twilight growing in the north east. In between and up high in the south sat the Clouds of Magellan in the darkest part of the sky. A very vague but persistent appendage to the LMC coming off underneath the Tarantula end of the Bar was best seen with averted vision, but occasionally with direct viewing. A few pesky clouds tried forming in the area. They moved off but the weak, elongated glow persisted. Binoculars weren't any help at all.

I'd say that the tail was no more than 8 degrees long, about the same as the brighter part shown in Lester's picture. In positive and negative views of Lester's shot there is a weak suggestion that the comet may trail off beyond the LMC, but it is not certain.

When I looked to my north I saw lightning flashes so it was good of them to hold off for an hour, otherwise I doubt that I will get another chance before Monday night. I just splashed out on a 450D so the weather will be puke for me for the next few days. Then I'll be ready to give it another crack!

Cheers

Coops