Wondrous Comet Lovejoy!!

[Liz]

Carl (renormalised) and myself headed west of Townsville this morning to see if we could see, and photograph the comet. Bit of a late start as couldnt find my cable release, and still cant!! :sadeyes:

Townsville was covered in light cloud, but 20 min out, I pulled over, and the skies were clear and gorgeous!! It was just after 4am, shame we werent a bit earlier. What a relief to see stars everywhere and the comet tail was shooting up out of Scorpious. A magnificent sight, and for those who havent seen it from a dark site, you NEED to!! Nearly brings tears to the eyes. :sad:

Both took quite a few pics, with manual pressing of the shutter button, :scared2:, then couldnt get the base of camera into tripod properly, time for new tripod I reckon.

40 min later, the predawn light was gathering, and the tail faded away. :sadeyes:

This was the best comet I have seen for 15 years, since Hyakutake,(North Qld missed Comet Macnaught due to rain/cloud) and something I will never forget. Thankyou Terry. :thumbsup:

[supernova1965]

:thumbsup::eyepop:Great shots Liz

[cometcatcher]

Great shots. Looks like I'm going to have to go look at this thing.

[Kevnool]

Top shots Liz.
Merry xmas.

Cheers Kev

[Liz]

Thank you Warren and Kevin, and you definitely need to look at it Kevin, before it fades away!!

Oh, in image ... 4, I have a nice little meteor too. :)

[anthony.tony]

Nice work - Tony.

[astronobob]

Well done on a super collection Liz, sounds a mighty experience for sure and your captures are showing a good deal of the Milkway,
Glad you had the opportunity : ) OnYa for the meteor too, very coool ! !

[Quark]

Well done Liz, what a great time to be an amateur astronomer.

Cheers
Trevor

[Liz]

Thank you all, such a privilage for us to be out there shooting this object!!

[Lester]

Wonderful views Liz.

All the best.

[[1ponders]]

Great shooting Liz :thumbsup: I really like the second one. Puts it all into perspective. :thumbsup: Keep 'em coming.

[renormalised]

It most certainly was a privilege to be shooting this object. Liz and I had a good time out there. The sky just opened up for us and hardly a cloud was in sight, until later on. A bit of ground fog built up as the sun was coming up (the usual early morning predawn drop in the dew point). Actually there was a bit of a nip to the air but as we came back into town, you could notice the difference as the air was warm there. Took a pair of binoculars and another camera out with me to get right into it, but I was that right into it I forgot about them entirely!!!!!.

Might try again from up at the local park which is just up the road from my place, in a day or two's time. Going to have a good night's sleep tonight!!!!:):)

[jjjnettie]

:) I do love the wide field images. So happy you got to see this one Liz.

[John Hothersall]

What an event, well captured. Cloudy here in Bris!

John.

[Liz]

I put one of my pics through the astromtry site, very cool!!



Yes, me too, Carl is also hiding behind my car there!! It does put the comet in perspective though.



Cheers jjj, widefields are my thing, much happier doing a widefield than fiddling with a little CCD .... or whatever, camera



You poor guys down there, but still, many of you (tho not you John) saw The great MacNaught Comet that we didnt see because of constant cloud.

[midnight]

I like the first one Liz.

Nice collection there!

Darrin...

[jeff@sa]

Nice shots Liz.
Worth the trip.
Cheers,
Jeff

[bartman]

Great shots there Liz!
I'm waiting for my shots to be processed by that astromerty site!
Cheers
Bartman

[suma126]

great wide field shots love them all:thumbsup: