Comet Lovejoy and the Southern Cross

[lepton3]

I travelled 20 mins out to darker skies this morning to get a better look at the comet. This shot was taken in a paddock somewhere near Montacute Heights, just east of Adelaide. Unfortunately there was some cloud low on the horizon which obscured the comet's head, but the Milky Way and Crux overhead where still dazzling.

Canon 400D with 18mm lens, ISO 1600, f/3.5, 30 second exposure.

-Ivan

[iceman]

Nice work!

[Lester]

Well composed view Ivan, I like it.

[Ric]

Great image Ivan

Very spectacular indeed.

[swannies1983]

Nice picture. It's interesting to see the results of others with the same camera. Have you tried pushing it out to a longer exposure (45-60secs)?

[gregbradley]

Wow, that's a beauty. So this comet is pretty spectacular eh?

Where do we find all the coordinates and times? JPL?

Greg.

[lepton3]

Mike, Lester, Ric, thanks for all the comments.

Greg, this morning comet and our bright southern skies, it's really a very special view.

For a chart of the path this comet will follow over the next week or so you could check out http://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011W3/2011W3.html

Dan, I personally think 30 sec is the most I'd want to do un-tracked before the trailed stars would start to detract from the image.

-Ivan

[Matt Wastell]

Looks great!