Brisbane Comet Lovejoy chasing expedition??

[mozzie (Peter)]

nice shots boys,what a great road trip that would have been

[RickS (Rick)]

Great to see you were successful!

Cheers,
Rick.

[shelltree (Shelley)]

Originally Posted by mishku

Oh, Shell, I'm *so* interested, but soooo live in the wrong state hahaha. Why didn't I plan for Christmas holidays on the GC? BOOOOO!! Good luck, guys

I'm sure you could still book a flight and some last minute accom!? Or you could just sleep in my bed You may have to contend with some mighty swell and huge waves though. Oh and the rain and insurmountable cloud cover

Woke up at 2:30am to a solid bank of cloud and a radar showing the coast to be even worse. Was so utterly disappointed so I set my alarm for 4:20am and checked outside again. Not a single patch of clear sky.

Then proceeded to dream about continually checking outside for clear skies, climbing my Dad's wobbly tressel to better see the comet and then finally came outside for the last time and saw Comet Lovejoy but the moon was breaking apart and spinning around?

At least there wasn't aliens involved this time Just goes to show how desperate I am to see this beauty...

Glad you guys had some good luck last night, the images are gorgeous, was certainly worth the lengthy, sleep deprived trip!

Really hoping this rain clears up a bit tonight. Considering just heading to Archerfield airway to get a good Eastern horizon tomorrow morning if anyone is keen? Or if anyone decides to head out again tonight, give me a holla.

I'm too afraid to make a huge trip by myself on little to no sleep.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Congratulations Guys A most excellent adventure. Comet huntin' with the CometGuy. Doesn't get much better than that. Terry, I can only imagine the grin on your face I sent you a yahoo the night jjj told me (first night you knew) so I hope it got through. If it didn't FANTASTIC EFFORT MAAAATTEE!!! Couldn't happen for a nicer guy.

[dj gravelrash (Dino)]

Will be in Yamba from 26/12 till 2/1. If anyone down that way and up for sum Cometgazing say hiya via pm.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hey Terry btw ..... Merry Xmas ... Bet yours have all come at once All you'd need now is a confirmed UFO to show up beside it

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Great to hear the road trip was very sucsessfull.

Cheers

[naskies (Dave)]

Inspiring stuff... I think I might head out west this afternoon and spend the whole evening somewhere between Dalby and Roma (cloud free forecast according to Skippy Sky). I've been itching to use my Astrotrac in anger, and all these photos are making me jealous!

[RobF (Rob)]

Here's a couple of quick "Lovejoys" from my camera....
Definitely a memorable trip

Thanks so much to Adam for making it happen. It actually started to rain on us again outside Dalby, but then 20mins later we came out pretty much in the clear. We knew we were in for a treat when we started to spot the tail coming up over the trees at 3am before stopping at our final spot (Umm, wherever the heck that actually was...). Still some low lying cloud over the comet at times, but so glad to have seen my first "big" comet

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by RobF

Here's a couple of quick "Lovejoys" from my camera....
Definitely a memorable trip

Thanks so much Adam to making it happen. It actually started to rain on us again outside Dalby, but then 20mins later we came out pretty much in the clear. We knew we were in for a treat when we started to spot the tail coming up over the trees at 3am before stopping at our final spot (Umm, wherever the heck that actually was...). Still some low lying cloud over the comet at times, but so glad to have seen my first "big" comet

No worries Rob - wouldn't have missed it for anything! I love the shot of terry at work. Interesting to see the background so clearly - had no idea what was there....!

I managed to catch up on some sleep this afternoon, as well as finishing my xmas shopping - all in all a very successful day. Thanks to terry and rob for your great company

Cheers all and merry christmas
Adam

[Liz]

You lucky buggers!! There were so many jealous people on the site who would have loved to have gone, but live too far away. What a wonderful experience for you.

[mishku]

Oh, Ponders, you're confused... Comet Lovejoy IS the confirmed UFO

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Hey Terry btw ..... Merry Xmas ... Bet yours have all come at once All you'd need now is a confirmed UFO to show up beside it

[CometGuy]

Thanks to Adam and Rob for making this such a fun trip. As the Adam mentions this was a 600 km round trip at night and I must admit I had to pull over for a catnap on the way home. However, the trip was well worth the effort!

I met up with Adam, Rob (and Tom?) at Dalby around 1am. Adam had decided to drive South-west from Dalby as it was the most direct route out of the cloud cover a strategy that paid off as we arrived at our destination to find dark clear skies with just a trace of cloud low in the east. When we arrived it was 2:25am, by which time some the tail was already visible protruding above the horizon even though comet rise was not until after 3am. The first image shown here shows us setting up at this time.

One of the highlights was watch more and more of the tail rise, and as it got higher it appeared to brighten, an effect of less atmospheric extinction. The best views of the comet came around 3:30-3:40am when the curved 20 degree long tail was now very conspicious to the naked eye. It was easily more prominent than either of the Magellanic Clouds and the brighter parts of the Milky way. At this time the ISS happened to pass to the south and I was able to capture it with the comet in a single wide angle (350D + Sigma 12-24 at 12mm f4.5) 60 second exposure which I've attached as the second image. I feel this gives a reasonable idea of the naked eye appearance of the comet.

The last image gives some idea of how the comet looked in small binoculars during the beginning of twilight. Of Note is the high intensity of tail, but the almost total lack of coma. This 8 second exposure was made with a 350D + 70-200 f2.8 non-IS L at 70mm f3.2. All images were made at ISO800.

Terry

[CometGuy]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Congratulations Guys A most excellent adventure. Comet huntin' with the CometGuy. Doesn't get much better than that. Terry, I can only imagine the grin on your face I sent you a yahoo the night jjj told me (first night you knew) so I hope it got through. If it didn't FANTASTIC EFFORT MAAAATTEE!!! Couldn't happen for a nicer guy.

Hey Paul, I did get your message and thank you!

[hotspur (Chris)]

Congratulations Terry,well done on this outstanding and amazing effort to capture!

What camera gear and settings did you use for the one with ISS in it? Did you have camera on EQ mount? got my 50D and 17-55 and tripod ready on the remote chance it will clear,and the 450D and 10-22mm.

[CometGuy]

Hi Chris,

I've add some extra details and yes all images were tripod only.

Terry

[hotspur (Chris)]

Originally Posted by CometGuy

Hi Chris,

I've add some extra details and yes all images were tripod only.

Terry

Thanks Terry.

[naskies (Dave)]

I found a nice spot just outside Roma half an hour ago - just finished setting up the 5DmkII + Astrotrac, running some test shots now. It's amazing here - totally cloud free! First time in my life I've seen the Milky Way cast a shadow... can't wait for the comet! :-)

[naskies (Dave)]

Epic views and photos of Lovejoy right now... hopefully other SE QLDers are having some luck too. I highly recommend doing the drive out west - definitely worth it. Thanks adman for the inspiration to go on the road trip!

[mozzie (Peter)]

finally the clouds cleared this morning and was able to see this comet...very impressive was not able to see 2 tails with naked eye but a fantastic sight to see in the east....well worth the effort day after day.....
am going to head a little west tomorrow morning just to get a little darker site and away from this coastal cloud and attempt to do a sketch.
hope the cloud stays away.........