Comet Lovejoy 31st December 2011

[Lester]

Hi all,

atlast a clear sky to image the comet. I tried ISO 400 to see if that would reveal more detail in the faint regions, but without any improvement IMO. The comet is still visible to the naked eye, although I don't think it will be for much longer, and the tail is shrinking.

This image is ISO 400, 4 minute exposure with 24mm lens at F2 using 20Da.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Comet%20images/7c36718b.jpg

This image is ISO 800, 2 minute exposure with 24mm lens at F2 using 20Da.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Comet%20images/c022ac1c.jpg

This image is ISO 800, 3 minute exposure with 24mm lens at F2 using 20Da.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Comet%20images/42e56b6d.jpg

[Crusader]

Nice shots! I'm contemplating going out again tonight after being too exhausted yesterday. Will see what the conditions are like at 01:00.

[Lester]

Thanks Crusader. I don't think we will have this comet for much longer as it may dim quickly. All the best.

[glenc]

Great images Lester. Where does the tail end? It is hard to tell.

[skysurfer]

Nice photos !
But the tail is very faint. On Jan 9 the comet is within 2 degrees from the South Pole so it rotates nearly around its head during the night.

For me from the north it is not visible, but in February I go to Bali and can (theoretically) see it but by then is is dimmed so far I cannot see it anymore.

[Troy]

Your taking some good pictures of this comet, well done Lester :)

[tornado33]

Nice deep widefield images there.
Scott

[swannies1983]

Nice images Lester.

How dark are your skies? Do you use a light pollution filter at all?

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Lester. Looks like you had some light problems there, in the bottom right hand corner!!! :)

[Lester]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I am stacking 11 exposures from this morning to see if that brings out some more tail detail.

I would not say my skies are real dark due to Port Lincoln being only 5kms to the south. Its a city of about 14,000 so not large, but still enough to bugga up a perfectly dark sky; the glow reaches up about 30 degrees. I don't use any LP filters.

Will put up the stacked/processed image soon.

All the best.

[Lester]

Hi all,

here is the image with 10 exposures from this morning stacked. Still hard to really nail down where the tail ends, but if some of you more skilled could blink it with another image, would take the guess work out of it.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Comet%20images/b12bc4ca.jpg

[rogerg]

Very nice clean images, and good to see how it is progressing.

[CometGuy]

Lester,

I think perhaps the tail might go another 2-3 degrees further from the point you mark, but hard to tell with the milky way there.

Terry

[glenc]

I think Comet Lovejoy's tail on Lester's image ends to the left of the magnitude 6.1 star SAO 257070. That makes it 24 degrees long in pa 225.