Brisbane Comet Lovejoy chasing expedition??

[adman]

I am thinking that tonight I might set out around 11pm or midnight and just keep driving west to try to find some clear skies.

On SkippySky it looks as though out west of Toowoomba (Pittsworth maybe...?) there might be a chance of having a clear eastern horizon.

I am just about tearing out my hair that this comet is going to fizzle away into nothingness and I don't get a look at it...

Anyone up for a midnight comet safari?

[lepton3]

Adam, Good plan!

From my reading of the charts, I think there is a good chance the comet will fade to about 6th mag by mid next week, so although it will be higher in the sky, it may be harder to see.

So I reckon do it. You'll only regret it if you don't.

-Ivan

[Mliss]

You're certainly not alone Adam. There are a few members around getting set with the same idea. i'd come just for the adventure... but you know, i've already seen it :P *cough* sorry :lol:

hope you find some comet buddies.

[adman]

I am going to try to get a few hours sleep before I go, so I can just keep driving until I hit clear.



Mliss - you better hope we never meet - I will give you my rendition of "cleeeeewwwwd disappear (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=84500)" that I will be practicing as I drive west tonight. :P:D

[renormalised]

Buy a large industrial fan from Bunnings....it's cheaper than the petrol you'll be spending money for and you don't have to rabbit on like a madman to get your own way!!! :):P:P:P

[renormalised]

But has only a slightly better chance of working than the psycho approach :):P:P

[RickS]

Adam,

I have my mother-in-law visiting for Christmas so I'd love to go for a long drive west of Brisbane, but my wife would probably kill me when I returned.

As an alternative, how much would you charge to take her with you? :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[DavidU]

:lol::thumbsup:

[CometGuy]

Adam,

I'm in! Am planning to heading west past Toowoomba towards Goondawindi. I'll likely leave somewhere around 10-11pm or so.

Will PM my contact details.

Terry

[mishku]

OHMYGOD!

As I was reading this, I was thinking, "surely, the ultimate is to go comet hunting with the comet hunter himself?"

Wonder if I can get a flight to Brisvegas in time to join the safari :question:

Have fun!! :)

[Suzy]

Don't head to Warwick- I have friends there and they said it was clouded out.

[Liz]

Wow, what an opportunity Adam with the man himself!! Hope it clears so you can see it in its glory.

I am heading 1 hr west of Townsville in the morning as am yet to see the comet in a dark sky!! Please stay away clouds - please all head to Darwin instead, sorry ian.

[jjjnettie]

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/satellite/qld/infrared-bw

I'm so sorry guys. Heading West won't be giving you any joys.
Maybe heading North will give clearer skies. :(

Give us a hoi if you are going up the coast, I'll come along for the ride. :)

[CometGuy]

Have been watching the satellite, there is that pesky low NE of Fraser Island thats feeding moisture onto the coast and into the trough. The trough seems to be further east than what it was yesterday, so if we go far enough west we might get decent clear skies. I was thinking of maybe Chinchilla or even Miles if necessary.

Will evaluate later tonight..time for some rest :)

Terry

[Kevnool]

Good luck fellas.
Hope the clouds PO for you.

Cheers

[Liz]

:lol::lol: i thought the same thing!!

Very unusual here in Townsville with clear blue skies, though thunderstorms predicted later, but my brother tells me the ex cyclone travelling down the coast is sucking all the cloud into it from up here. Hoping for clear skies in the am.

[DavidTrap]

Post of the year I say! :rofl:

Sorry I won't be able to join you on your road trip - too many late nights already this week.

All the best,

DT

[swannies1983]

Good luck all. Hoping for clear skies for you. I can understand your frustration. I missed McNaught as I was in Europe at the time. Didn't help when some friends kept sending me texts saying how great the show was.

[shelltree]

Good luck guys! I've already talked Jase into getting up at 2:30am tomorrow morning to head to the Gold Coast (probably around Currumbin area), in the hopes that we will get a break in the clouds. We were intending on doing sunrise anyway but I don't think even me with my persuasive woman powers could get him to start driving somewhere at 10-11pm tonight :P :sadeyes:

If you guys don't end up going as far or if anyone else is interested, give us a holla via pm :)

Cheers!

[adman]

well - we're goin' on safari!

Initially heading to Dalby then see where to go from there. Just taking my alt/az mount and 550D with a selection of lenses - 70-200L, 17-40L and nifty fifty (oh...and Ricks mother-in-law). Something in that line up should do!

Will keep you posted! I'm off to try to get some sleep....ahh who am I kidding...:P

Adam

[mishku]

Oh, Shell, I'm *so* interested, but soooo live in the wrong state hahaha. Why didn't I plan for Christmas holidays on the GC? BOOOOO!! Good luck, guys :)

[DavidTrap]

Maybe taking Ricks MIL could bring you good fortune!

Safe trip.

DT

[gregbradley]

I'd come with you but I am in Sydney unless you want to swing by and pick me up!

Greg.

[mozzie]

great idea guys what an adventure.........
2 mornings know been up at 3.00am trying to see it through clouds and rain still with no luck.......
don't know about the rest of you but the past 2 years have been crap with the weather and iv'e just about had it......can't wait till the next drought

hope it dries everything out kills all the grass and we run out of drinking water:rofl::rofl: and we can have some bloody clear nights to see things.....

[Liz]

:lol::lol::lol:

[GrahamL]

good luck mozzie,mate could you give me a bell if it looks clear :thumbsup::D
I don't want to spoil my beauty sleep if its still raining.

[jjjnettie]

I think I'll stay right where I am, looks like it will be clear here. :D

[mishku]

STAR PARTY AT NETTIE'S HOUSE!!!

:party: :party: :party:

[mozzie]

sat in my deck chair this morning with all of a 10 second glimpse of this fantastic comet only to have to run back to the house as -----------------the rain come back in :shrug::mad2:oh well try again tomorrow

[jjjnettie]

Can't wait to hear if the boys had a successful mission.:prey:

[CometGuy]

Yes we got a beautiful view of the comet! Many thx to Adam for navigating us out of the cloud. Photos to come.

Terry

[CometGuy]

This is straight, unprocessed, from the camera - 12mm + 103 seconds + 350D. You can see that comet tail is much brighter than the milky way, LMC and SMC.

Terry

[Astroman]

Tail is easily naked eye, even through Light Pollution. Nice image btw Terry

[Finite]

Well done Terry and Adam! You made your own luck, and reaped a reward. How far did you travel in the end?

[adman]

Woo hoo!

Rob and I are in the car on the way home. I didnt get a wink of sleep all night until Just now.

We were lucky enough to find the end of the clouds between Dalby and Moonie and setup up our cameras at the side of the road. The comet was a magnificent sight. My first one since Halleys...

Managed to snap some piccies that I will post when I get home. Such a worthwhile night, so glad we went, but so very tired...

Adam

[adman]

Total for the night about 600km round trip!

[hotspur]

Congratulations! Adam and Rob-that is a sterling effort there!

Just looked at Rob's image-very impressive.Have set up to capture this but
\been clouded out-even rain last night/this morning,Astronomy can be so frustrating.

I will show this image to all around here who also waited to see.

Well done!

[DavidTrap]

Congrats on a successful trip! The things we do for Astronomy...

DT

[Liz]

Well done guys, great effort indeed, but worth it!!

I saw it this morning in dark skies, and wowowow!! My best comet since Hyakutake for sure!!

I just hope the public can get a looksee at it too like us. I had a sting on the North QLd ABC letting people know. Nervewracking experience, but hope that a few get too see it because of the interview.

[adman]

here's some quick and dirty pics after some curves in DPP

Adam

[mozzie]

nice shots boys,what a great road trip that would have been :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Great to see you were successful!

Cheers,
Rick.

[shelltree]

I'm sure you could still book a flight and some last minute accom!? :P Or you could just sleep in my bed :P:lol: You may have to contend with some mighty swell and huge waves though. Oh and the rain and insurmountable cloud cover :sadeyes:

Woke up at 2:30am to a solid bank of cloud and a radar showing the coast to be even worse. Was so utterly disappointed so I set my alarm for 4:20am and checked outside again. Not a single patch of clear sky.

Then proceeded to dream about continually checking outside for clear skies, climbing my Dad's wobbly tressel to better see the comet and then finally came outside for the last time and saw Comet Lovejoy but the moon was breaking apart and spinning around? :lol:

At least there wasn't aliens involved this time :rolleyes: Just goes to show how desperate I am to see this beauty...

Glad you guys had some good luck last night, the images are gorgeous, was certainly worth the lengthy, sleep deprived trip! :D

Really hoping this rain clears up a bit tonight. Considering just heading to Archerfield airway to get a good Eastern horizon tomorrow morning if anyone is keen? Or if anyone decides to head out again tonight, give me a holla.

I'm too afraid to make a huge trip by myself on little to no sleep.

[[1ponders]]

Congratulations Guys :clap: A most excellent adventure. :D Comet huntin' with the CometGuy. Doesn't get much better than that. Terry, I can only imagine the grin on your face :face: I sent you a yahoo the night jjj told me (first night you knew) so I hope it got through. If it didn't FANTASTIC EFFORT MAAAATTEE!!! :D :D :D Couldn't happen for a nicer guy. :cool2:

[dj gravelrash]

Will be in Yamba from 26/12 till 2/1. If anyone down that way and up for sum Cometgazing say hiya via pm.:)

[[1ponders]]

Hey Terry btw ..... :xmas:Merry Xmas:xmas: :D ... Bet yours have all come at once:cheers::reindeer: :thumbsup: All you'd need now is a confirmed UFO to show up beside it :lol:

[Kevnool]

Great to hear the road trip was very sucsessfull.

Cheers

[naskies]

Inspiring stuff... I think I might head out west this afternoon and spend the whole evening somewhere between Dalby and Roma (cloud free forecast according to Skippy Sky). I've been itching to use my Astrotrac in anger, and all these photos are making me jealous! :)

[RobF]

Here's a couple of quick "Lovejoys" from my camera....:P
Definitely a memorable trip :)

Thanks so much to Adam for making it happen. It actually started to rain on us again outside Dalby, but then 20mins later we came out pretty much in the clear. We knew we were in for a treat when we started to spot the tail coming up over the trees at 3am before stopping at our final spot (Umm, wherever the heck that actually was...). Still some low lying cloud over the comet at times, but so glad to have seen my first "big" comet :D

[adman]

No worries Rob - wouldn't have missed it for anything! I love the shot of terry at work. Interesting to see the background so clearly - had no idea what was there....!

I managed to catch up on some sleep this afternoon, as well as finishing my xmas shopping - all in all a very successful day. Thanks to terry and rob for your great company

Cheers all and merry christmas
Adam

[Liz]

You lucky buggers!! There were so many jealous people on the site who would have loved to have gone, but live too far away. What a wonderful experience for you. :thumbsup:

[mishku]

Oh, Ponders, you're confused... Comet Lovejoy IS the confirmed UFO :lol:

[CometGuy]

Thanks to Adam and Rob for making this such a fun trip. As the Adam mentions this was a 600 km round trip at night and I must admit I had to pull over for a catnap on the way home. However, the trip was well worth the effort!

I met up with Adam, Rob (and Tom?) at Dalby around 1am. Adam had decided to drive South-west from Dalby as it was the most direct route out of the cloud cover a strategy that paid off as we arrived at our destination to find dark clear skies with just a trace of cloud low in the east. When we arrived it was 2:25am, by which time some the tail was already visible protruding above the horizon even though comet rise was not until after 3am. The first image shown here shows us setting up at this time.

One of the highlights was watch more and more of the tail rise, and as it got higher it appeared to brighten, an effect of less atmospheric extinction. The best views of the comet came around 3:30-3:40am when the curved 20 degree long tail was now very conspicious to the naked eye. It was easily more prominent than either of the Magellanic Clouds and the brighter parts of the Milky way. At this time the ISS happened to pass to the south and I was able to capture it with the comet in a single wide angle (350D + Sigma 12-24 at 12mm f4.5) 60 second exposure which I've attached as the second image. I feel this gives a reasonable idea of the naked eye appearance of the comet.

The last image gives some idea of how the comet looked in small binoculars during the beginning of twilight. Of Note is the high intensity of tail, but the almost total lack of coma. This 8 second exposure was made with a 350D + 70-200 f2.8 non-IS L at 70mm f3.2. All images were made at ISO800.

Terry

[CometGuy]

Hey Paul, I did get your message and thank you!

[hotspur]

Congratulations Terry,well done on this outstanding and amazing effort to capture!

What camera gear and settings did you use for the one with ISS in it? Did you have camera on EQ mount? got my 50D and 17-55 and tripod ready on the remote chance it will clear,and the 450D and 10-22mm.

[CometGuy]

Hi Chris,

I've add some extra details and yes all images were tripod only.

Terry

[hotspur]

Thanks Terry.

[naskies]

I found a nice spot just outside Roma half an hour ago - just finished setting up the 5DmkII + Astrotrac, running some test shots now. It's amazing here - totally cloud free! First time in my life I've seen the Milky Way cast a shadow... can't wait for the comet! :-)

[naskies]

Epic views and photos of Lovejoy right now... hopefully other SE QLDers are having some luck too. I highly recommend doing the drive out west - definitely worth it. Thanks adman for the inspiration to go on the road trip!

[mozzie]

finally the clouds cleared this morning and was able to see this comet...very impressive was not able to see 2 tails with naked eye but a fantastic sight to see in the east....well worth the effort day after day.....
am going to head a little west tomorrow morning just to get a little darker site and away from this coastal cloud and attempt to do a sketch.
hope the cloud stays away.........

[RobF]

Yes, I wondered exactly what was in the field we'd set up in too! I could make out the windmill against the sky, but had no idea what else was there except mosquitos. Seemed important to get a "Terry in action souvenir" too. Still haven't had a good play with the pics, so much happening this time of year.