More comet images from SA!

[Adelastro1]

I originally posted this in the main Lovejoy thread but since I'll be taking more shots over the next few nights while in country SA for Xmas I thought I'd start a new one to show!

I hope this works ok. I'm on my iPhone!


Here's my first attempts at the comet. I had my head buried in the sand and only found out about it yesterday after seeing it on the general news media! Anyway I managed to head up to the East side of the Adelaide Hills last night to the Tungkillo lookout to get a view looking towards Mannum and Murray Bridge. Unfortunately there was cloud on the horizon that stayed all night but i still managed to get some decent views and images.

I quickly processed these in CS5 and they probably need a bit more work yet but I ran out of time! Taken with Nikon D7000, 18-105mm or Tokina 12-24mm. ISO 1600-5000, 20-30sec, f4.

Image 1 has a nice bright satellite that was heading towards the comet and Murray Bridge!

Image 2 is a cropped version of the very next image with the satellite, a small meteor (upper left), car headlights streak, town lights, Milky Way and the comet! I like all the different light sources in that one!

Image 3 is a 50mm shot

Image 4 I managed to see the head of the comet

Image 5 is a wide angle, 12mm with Mannum on the left and Murray Bridge right.

Off to Bordertown today so another dark sky beckons, although tomorrow night looks like being cloudy. I'm sure I get some later on though. ;)

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=106039

[batema]

Fantastic. I just wish the clouds would clear on the sunshine coast.

Mark

[Analog6]

Beautiful work!

[Adelastro1]

Ok here are some more images from this morning. When I arrived at my location at Poocher Swamp west of Bordertown there was quite a lot of lightning on the eastern horizon. I was hoping it would come closer to get some shots of it with the comet but it didn't. :( I still managed to get some pretty good shots including some with colour on the horizon from the lightning. Unfortunately cloud kept coming across so most shots the comet was partly obscured. The last one is a shot of what I presume is the ISS and lightning on the horizon again, but no comet.

All shot with my Nikon D7000, and Tokina 12-24 unless stated

#1 30sec, ISO 6400, f4, 12mm
#2 60sec, ISO 3200, f4, 12mm
#3 30sec, ISO 3200, f4, 24mm
#4 60sec, ISO 3200, f4, 12mm
#5 60sec, ISO 3200, f4, 12mm
#6 60sec, ISO 3200, f4, 12mm
#7 30sec, ISO 3200, f4, 12mm
#8 30sec, ISO 3200, f4, 28mm Nikon 18-105

[Greg Priestley]

Some stunning shots - love #6

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Greg. Yes that's my favourite too!

[renormalised]

They're on a par with Alex's shots.....brilliant!!!!:)

The colours in those shots are stunning and so is the setting....what blows me away is the reflection of the stars themselves in the water. It's not very often you see this!!.

Like I said to Alex...send those into APOD and every astro mag you know of. They're going to go down a treat!!!.

[dpastern]

super set of shots!

Dave

[Adelastro1]

Haha thanks Carl. This is why I love this location for astrophotography. It's often calm and I get some great reflections.

I really don't think they are on a par with Alex's. His are so sharp and clear.

Yeh i might send a couple around and see what happens. ;-)

[renormalised]

Don't sell yourself short, Wayne. Those are just as good as Alex's. They'd win competitions....that I'd be sure of :).

If you can get a really good camera shop that understand how to print off skyscapes like this, I'd go and get a full size print of these pics done and frame them....if I were you :).

[Adelastro1]

Thanks again Carl! These were processed pretty quickly today so I could probably get them looking a little better after more of a play around. I've actually had several large prints done and a few framed of similar night shots and star trails from this location... and all I did was get them printed at Harvey Normans or Camera House! They look amazing printed off large and it just shows you what these run of the mill processing places are capable of now days!

[renormalised]

What size did you get them printed at??

[Liz]

Like...wowowowow!! They are absolutely stunning Wayne, on a par with the top ones being taken, I wish I had that site!!

As I said in the other thread, I hope you have sent a few to Spaceweather!!

Stunning!! :thumbsup:

[Adelastro1]

18in x 12in (45 x 30cm). They do larger much more easily now too so will have to give it a try.

I just posted a few on Redbubble and you can sort of see what they would look like framed or mounted.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249614-comet-reflections-2
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249542-glowing
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249523-comet-reflections

[MortonH]

Very nice. Excellent location!

[midnight]

Photo 6 has gotta be a real contender for some award or mag post.

Really fantastic work there Wayne.

Darrin...

[gregbradley]

Stunningly good. These are really art. That #6 shot and those posted crops are fantastic.


Greg.

[astronobob]

Stunning compositions Wayne, really added the WOW Factor on them !
Works of Art definately ! !

[Lester]

Very nice views of the comet Wayne.

All the best.

[strongmanmike]

Great shots Wayne :thumbsup:

Mike

[m@s]

WoW, Wayne, your pictures are splendid !
Composition with foreground is very nice and reflections on water are beautiful.
Bravo :)

[Adelastro1]

Thanks everyone for your nice comments!

[naskies]

Stunning work! They're all amazing, but like many others #6 really works for me. I wouldn't have thought to look for an interesting tree like *and* a body of water for the reflections... very creative.

Do you mind me asking - did you already have that location in mind from a prior experience, or was it a site that you found specifically for the comet?

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Dave. I love this site and I definitely had it in mind when I heard about the comet. I live 300km away and it just happened that I was heading to my home country town for Xmas! I've had many night shoots there and I love getting the nice foregrounds in my images.

[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! :eyepop: 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!).

More photos from the night to come... I need sleep first!

[Adelastro1]

Here are some more 'arty' shots from the morning of the 27th. I noticed that there was a green glow on the horizon showing up in the first hour or so of photos that I took. I presume it was fog or faint cloud but it might be slight auroral activity?? 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 6400, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#5 ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#6 ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#7 ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm
#8 is a stack of 6 images to show the full ISS transit, ISO 3200, 30 sec, f4 at 12mm.

[Octane]

Beautiful works of art.

H

[naskies]

Wayne, that green light was picked up quite strongly in my photos (here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=84659)) taken from a super dark site near Roma, QLD, and to a lesser extent from a dark site in Blackbutt, QLD. I'd also be very interested to know what causes it?!

I could see that there was a slight fog or something with the naked eye, but no colour obviously. I've seen it in many of the Lovejoy photos posted here. The fact I captured it in QLD suggests that it's not auroral activity (I didn't think it could be seen here)?

Perhaps it was some form of zodiacal light or gegenschein?

[Octane]

Oxygen.

H

[shelltree]

:eyepop: WOW!!! These are superb Wayne! I love how much detail there is in each shot, the beautiful composition, the stars reflected in the water and the dead trees in the foreground. They are all breathtaking and very inspiring! Thanks for sharing! :D

[renormalised]

Done it again:):)

Those are exquisite!!!!!. Just post them a little larger like the first ones and they'll really blow you away!!!:):)

That green glow might be some sort of upper atmospheric ionisation from the storms we've been having lately. It would be oxygen, as H suggested, being excited by all the electrical activity. Nitrogen glows a bright blue, so it's not that.

[naskies]

Wayne - I forgot to say that your second collection is again amazing! :)

H - care to elaborate? By "oxygen" are you referring to the green rim effect?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash

[renormalised]

No....it's the generalised green glow he's talking about. If it's not some refraction effect through very fine mist, then it maybe light coming from ionised oxygen atoms....specifically from the transition of outer valence shell electrons back into their ground state, giving you that green coloured light. It'll be occurring in the upper atmosphere...very high up, over 100km up. It's probably being generated by the sprites and other electrical discharges at the tops of the storms.

[naskies]

Thanks Carl, I was getting my atmospheric phenomena mixed up. I did a bit more reading on Wikipedia and it seems to be referred to as a form of airglow or nightglow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_brightness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow

[star1961]

Beautiful shots what great memories to have recorded

[star1961]

I particularly like all the reflection photos of the comet future award winner? Are you the only photographer with reflection shots? I've seen so many photos of the comet I've lost track?

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Lisa. Yes I like taking something a bit different like that. I'll enter a couple in comps I guess and see what happens. The first photo I saw on IIS in the main Lovejoy thread was a beautiful reflection image and included the moon, by colinmlegg, but other than that I haven't seen any others. I like the symmetry that reflections give.

Last night I did a reflection time lapse so I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I've got so many images now it's hard to pick my best ones! I did a time lapse last night so when I work out how I can post it after processing I'll put it up!

Thanks for the info on the sky colour I was picking up. I think i was just hopeful it was an aurora! haha. Airglow seems to be the likely explanation - thanks Dave. There were no storms or cloud around when I picked it up.

Carl - I didn't realise they were smaller! I had to resize them of course for the 200kb limit on the file size but I thought I did it the same way as the first lot!

[renormalised]

Well, those piccies are something I can aspire to:). Mind you, I'm happy with what my little Nikon did.

[Adelastro1]

Yes everyone should be! Every photo of the comet I've seen on here captured it well.

[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.

[zardos123]

very nice, love the composition and have to agree with the others number 6 is probably the standout but not by much!
well done

regards brad

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Brad. I didn't think #6 was the best, so there you go! We all have different tastes which makes it harder to pick the right ones to use!

[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.

[skysurfer]

Really nice these pix !

The circling image around the south pole is also very nice and the one with the stars mirrored in the water ! Awesome !

[renormalised]

More great shots, Wayne:):)

[CometGuy]

Yes a lovely sequence of Shots Wayne. Do you have any larger sizes anywhere?

Terry

[Adelastro1]

Thanks! I really do like my startrails! :-)

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Terry. I tried to make them larger to upload here but must have failed! I have a few up on Redbubble now but need to put the rest up so I can let you know when I do.

Here's the first batch:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249523-comet-reflections
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249542-glowing
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249614-comet-reflections-2
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249764-comet-lovejoy-over-mannum

[renormalised]

Hey Wayne, is your camera a D700 or D7000....just got a bit confused with your piccie info and what you have in your sig' :):)

[alexch]

Wonderful images, Wayne! My favourite is N1 from the 28th.
Cheers,
Alex

[michael_sa]

Carl, the EXIF data on his images (or at least the one I checked) says: Nkon D7000

Michael

[renormalised]

Thanks Michael:)

I hadn't checked the EXIF...would've told me beforehand:P

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Alex! Why do you like that one over the rest? I can never pick the best one myself and never know what to enter into comps!
It was quickly processed too so I can tidy it up more yet, plus the small file size limit on here don't do many of the photo we put up justice.

So when are we seeing more pf your images Alex? We're all patiently waiting!

[Adelastro1]

It looks like you guys worked it out! I need to update my signature don't I!

I 'upgraded' to a D7000 from a D700 because I couldn't use the full capability of the FX body with the lenses I had and couldn't afford to upgrade them yet. Plus the D7000 has most of the features of the D700 with some extra, better features etc, and just not FX. The noise at high ISO is excellent and even better with the in-camera high ISO NR.

[renormalised]

Thanks Wayne:)

Yeah, I want to get myself a D7000. I've got a little D3000 which does me fine, but I'd like to have the little extra grunt to do some things justice. In any case I'd like another camera anyway!!!:)

[Adelastro1]

Yes I can highly recommend it! As you can see from my comet images it does them pretty well I reckon! I do need a really fast lens though. Phil, Alex et al that have them produce some really great sharp and bright shots...

[renormalised]

At Garricks Camera House, they've got a 50mm, f/1.4 G lens for $779 and a 35mm, f/1.8 G lens for $349. They also have a 50mm, f/1.8 G lens for $299. All Nikkors.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Love the whole lot. #6 at sunset is not often seen. Terrific stuff. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Marc. Sunrise by the way ;)

[alexch]

The composition in that shot works for me - the frame is quite balanced with lovely soft silhouetted trees on the left, The Mliky Way with the comet's tail, harsh barren trees on the right drawing attention to the comet and nice reflections on the foreground. Banded oxygen airglow is an added bonus.

I don't have any more Lovejoy images - this is it. I was lucky to see it once, then the weather was not too cooperative.

Cheers,
Alex

[Adelastro1]

Thank you Alex for your thoughts. Great to hear why you liked that one. It does have a lot of elements in it doesn't it when you put it like that!

It's a damn shame you didn't get to see more of it... would have loved to see more of your shots!

Wayne

[alexch]

N5 from 25th is great too. It would have been perfect without trailing stars but it's just my preference not too see star trails unless in a stratrail shot.

I wish too but I feel extremely lucky to have seen it once.

[Adelastro1]

Hi Terry and everyone,

I've finally got around to uploading the higher res versions of most of the images I posted in this thread. The links are below. Apologies that they are on a commercial sales website but it's the only place I have to put them at the moment. I'm not really trying to sell them to you! haha. One of my new years resolutions is to have my own website with these on....

I haven't had time to reprocess them much at all though. Always the way when you get back to work after holidays. Thank goodness the comet appeared when it did and I had time to photograph it and process them!

When these links open click on the image itself for a larger view. Scroll down for image details and some I will place a framed version below as well to see how they would look framed.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249523-comet-reflections
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249542-glowing
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249614-comet-reflections-2
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8249764-comet-lovejoy-over-mannum
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8312595-space-station-meets-comet-lovejoy
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8312621-comet-lovejoy-silhouettes
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8312639-comet-lovejoy-swamp-reflections
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8312694-reaching-for-lovejoy
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8312710-space-station-meets-comet-lovejoy-2
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8322868-comet-lovejoy-with-iridium-flare

Even though you can't see the comet, these two are startrails produced from a series of shots of the comet I took for timelapses:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8322905-space-station-startrails
http://www.redbubble.com/people/poweripics/works/8322920-robe-startrails

[gregbradley]

A wonderful collection of images Wayne.

Greg.

[Adelastro1]

Bartman posted these links in another thread and I saw that they used my photo in the NASA article and Youtube video! How cool is that! It's even the thumbnail for the Youtube video. :thumbsup:

And that probably explains why I had someone from the US email me today asking for a poster of the photo so they can put up in their planetarium building facility near Philadelphia! Haha. It's funny how things work.

I sent some photos to Spaceweather.com taken on 25th Dec which they picked it up from. I'm sending some more in now from the other nights that I imaged. :)


Originally Posted by bartman http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/../vbiis/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=810172#post810172)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w75lBn1QIaI
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news..._cometlovejoy/ (http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/12jan_cometlovejoy/)

Bartman

[greenpixie]

Amazing photos:eyepop:

[stardust steve]

Great images, that equipment really take some good pics:thumbsup:
so vivid and great colours.:)