A comet? Photo now attached...

[cybereye (Mario)]

Hi all!

This morning I took a picture of the first sunrise of 2013 from Broadbeach but I also managed to photograph what looked like a comet before it disappeared behind the clouds. I'm hoping to get to the beach tomorrow morning to see if I can see it again.

I'll post the image when I get access to a computer but was wondering if there was supposed to be a fairly bright comet visible at dawn at the moment?

Cheers,
Mario

[cybereye (Mario)]

The next day...

OK, I went down to the beach this morning but because of cloud there was no sign of my "comet". However Venus was visible but it was a lot higher that what I recalled my "comet" was yesterday. I did take some images of Venus with my camera in the same fashion as yesterday but I was unable to get a "tail" as yesterday's image even when putting Venus out of focus.

I've attached two images of my "comet" - one being a cropped close-up of the first - and would love to hear people's thoughts on this as it's really got me perplexed!!

Cheers,
Mario

[Poita (Peter)]

Was this due east?

[MrB (Simon)]

Looks like a short vapour trail?

[cybereye (Mario)]

Originally Posted by Poita

Was this due east?

Looking at a map of the orientation of the beach at Broadbeach I would say it probably is due east. However this then has the tail in the wrong orientation (I think) as it is not trailing away from the Sun. The only bright things I can find in the area are Venus and Mercury but as I mentioned earlier I could not recreate the "tail" with the camera slightly off focus. It was also very bright and orange in colour compared to Venus this morning. It really has me puzzled!

Originally Posted by MrB

Looks like a short vapour trail?

Yes it does but I can't find any mention of a comet in this area. Maybe I'm just not very good at manual focus and I've got one of the inner planets but then the clouds look ok....

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by cybereye

Looking at a map of the orientation of the beach at Broadbeach I would say it probably is due east. However this then has the tail in the wrong orientation (I think) as it is not trailing away from the Sun. The only bright things I can find in the area are Venus and Mercury but as I mentioned earlier I could not recreate the "tail" with the camera slightly off focus. It was also very bright and orange in colour compared to Venus this morning. It really has me puzzled!



Yes it does but I can't find any mention of a comet in this area. Maybe I'm just not very good at manual focus and I've got one of the inner planets but then the clouds look ok....

I think you just have short contrail lit up by the early morning sun I have seen objects like that before.
I don't think it is a comet as it would have been spotted by the numerous
Comet hunters and satellites ect
Cheers

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by cybereye

Yes it does but I can't find any mention of a comet in this area. Maybe I'm just not very good at manual focus and I've got one of the inner planets but then the clouds look ok....

Hi sorry, by vapour trail I mean condensation trail from an aircraft.

[cybereye (Mario)]

Originally Posted by astroron

I think you just have short contrail lit up by the early morning sun I have seen objects like that before.
I don't think it is a comet as it would have been spotted by the numerous
Comet hunters and satellites ect
Cheers

Yes, once I searched and found no reference to a comet in that area I thought it a bit far fetched that I'd discovered one that was so bright!! It would've been nice though....

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by cybereye

Yes, once I searched and found no reference to a comet in that area I thought it a bit far fetched that I'd discovered one that was so bright!! It would've been nice though....

Comet Mario would sound really good
Cheers

[cybereye (Mario)]

Maybe it was the cause of the Mayan predicted end of the world - only 10 days late and a little off course....

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Still a great adventure!