Soon Itchy (I hope).
Gotta take a trip down memory lane before I go further. I remember the very first time I saw Comet Halley. It was in November 1985 through my 8 inch f7.5 Newtonian. This was the first comet I ever saw and remember waking up my parents to come take a look. Mum thought it was great, but I think dad wanted his sleep!
A couple of nights later on November 12 I took my very first photo of a comet. It was only a 12 minute exposure with a 200mm f3.5 lens on Ilford HP5 but it was enough. By today's standards the photo is pretty poor but there was so much hype obout Halley at this time that this first photo was published in the local paper, as was the second one where a meteor went through the frame.
I never saw it naked eye until just after perihelion in February 1986. I remember waking up one morning just before light racing to beat the sun to get a photo. I wasn't prepared so all I had was a 135mm f2.8 lens, camera and tripod. Loaded the camera with Fuji 1600 I think it was and took a shot only about half a minute long. An aircraft was just passing through the frame at the time.
Many of my best shots came in March very early in the morning when the tail was side on to Earth. This last shot was taken on Fuji 1600 with a 400mm f5.6 Tokina lens piggy back, 15 minutes exposure. The plasma tail and dust tail can be seen.
Unfortunately the tail was not positioned well for close approach in April. I remember the general public was so hyped up expecting to see something like a bright fog light in the sky they all cried fizzer! But I didn't care! I was having a ball! (I just lurv comets)
