[Ian Cooper]

The weather turned to the prevailing westerly pattern so that is bad news for us west coasters on the North Island of New Zealand. So it was over the mountains again to our alternate site at Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa. Brilliant over there. Arrived at the end of twilight and thought that I could detect some of the tail through Apus and Chamaeleon even with the Moon up. A couple hours of sleep then up before moonset. The comet was higher and once again I thought that the tail was there in the same vicinity. Once the influence of the moon was finally over my suspicions were confirmed.

I started imaging with my trusty old Nikon F film camera and a 35mm lens. The negs look good so I will get them scanned tomorrow and report back.

I was using the Nankervill Schmidt Camera mounting for tracking purposes. Using the Phoenix Astronomical Society's Canon 10D, which I have been using throughout this apparition, I was finally able to take some long, guided exposures as opposed to the limitations of the tripod. I have a similar tracking platform at home, the only trouble being that when the comet finally cleared some pesky powerlines the weather turned, so I never got the chance to take some long exposures from 40m from my back door! Instead I had to do a 300km round trip to get the desired results.

To the eye after moonset I thought I could easily follow the tail out to and just past Miaplacidus (Beta Car) in the Diamond Cross. From there I was less sure. With that in mind I took two 10 minute exposures that mostly overlap, in order to have any chance of picking up the full length of tail with the Canon 35mm lense.

In my preparations to travel over the Tararua Ranges I left a vital bit of kit behind. The remote cord that attaches to the 10D and makes for taking 'bulb' pictures that much easier was 150 km away when I needed it! Fortunately the camera on its photographic knuckle was mounted on an angle-iron bar that I was able to rest my palm on, whilst pressing down the button with my index finger. I did two 5 minute shots first before tackling two ten minute shots.

It is a bit of an act maintaining the right pressure on the button for that length of time. Some early morning mozzies took an interst in my vulnerable right hand during the 10 minute shots. I was able to chase them away quietly with my free left hand. Just goes to show that even an old hand like me should write up a checklist of essential kit for a trip like that.

Photo details are Canon 10D, 35mm @ f/4.5, 10 minutes each frame, 800 ISO. The image supplied with this post is a low res one from me playing around with the two raws in Photoshop Elements.

Looking at our forecast I don't expect to see The Great Christmas Comet of 2011 again. I only clocked up 800 km this time compared with over 1,000 km for McNaught 5 years ago chasing the great comet's tail. It has been a fantastic ride once again. I saw it on ten out of the past 17 mornings, and most of those were when it was at it's best.

I'll post the results from the film tomorrow night. Most of you may be surprised at how well that comes out too.

Cheers,

Coops