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Two Months of Lovejoy!
Hi All,
it has been an amazing two months chasing the tail of this Great Comet! I am sure all of us wouldn't have believed that anyone would still be imaging the little comet that could after two months. Thanks to the sterling work of those who caught the comet bug in a big way, most notably Lester, Rob and Justin to name but a few, I was able to plot the comet as seen in photographs taken from New Zealand & Australia from my first sighting on December 19th, 2011 through to Lester's image of February 21st, 2012.
The two major gaps are due to the full moon.
I created a wide field chart from The Sky version 6. Turned it into a B&W image and sketched on the impressions of the comet from numerous contributions to this site and others, using pencil. I then inverted the image colours to produce a white on black picture.
The hardest part was deciding where the tail actually ended. This is a perennial problem for all cometary observers. I have decided that if I am uncertain then I will not show it extending beyond my certainty. The hardest section to determine was when Comet Lovejoy crossed the Milky Way.
Anyway this is just my little momento of a memorable period in comet history for you all to enjoy.
Cheers
Coops
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