Comet Lovejoy 22-12-11

[Lester]

Thanks Troy and Chris for your comments. Hope the clouds clear for you soon Chris. I have tried to paint out the lights in the sea that trailed during the time exposure.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/dbae42d0.jpg

[Clayton]

Beautiful Lester

[Analog6 (Odille)]

Originally Posted by hotspur

WOW!

Is this comet visible from QLD?

(if we ever had no clouds)

MY feeling precisely. I am going to be getting up nice and early every morning to check. Whereabouts are you - maybe we could meet up?

And a question - I want ti have a go at this with my H2, but highest ASA is 800 and it is quite noisy. Advice on how long an exposure I should give for the various ISO speed (100/200/400/800). I can go down to f3.5 if I am using my wide angle zoom lens.

I'm thinking I'll start out at 800 and work down ISOs as the dawn comes up.

I know that when I did the planetary/moon conjunctions earlier this year I could not get any stars to show up, and they are what makes the images so spectacular.

Any advice most appreciated.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Great stuff Lester! I am so keen to see this but Brisbane clouds are a pain!

[Lester]

Thanks Rob, Odille and Matt for your comments. I hope you all get a good view of this comet the second best I have seen to Mc Naught.

Odille try different ISO settings as different cameras perform differently. I would start with 10 second exposure. If you have not got a tracking mount you are limited, as longer exposures will just blur the comet more. Wide field is good, to minimise drift during exposure and at widest field of view you may be able to use 20-30 seconds.

Hope that makes sense. All the best.

[Analog6 (Odille)]

Thanks Lester. Cloudy again this morning, I may go for a drive tomorrow night to see if I can get clear of the cloud cover.

[OICURMT]

Too popular of a photo... bandwidth exceeded...

Originally Posted by From PhotoBucket

This image exceeds bandwidth with too many views

[Lester]

Yes, had over 1,000 viewing yesterday and that was too much for the free version of Photobucket. I have just paid for the Pro version and all is working okay now.

[Analog6 (Odille)]

It's just gorgeous. I got up at 1.30am and drove down to Hastings Point where I saw the comet but the photo taking was a big flop. Nice star field shots but way too noisy when exposure pushed enough in PP to see the comet. The price for giving up 35mm so I could go med format for my landscapes.

I wish there were some good images on RedBubble so I could buy a few cards, only Mike has one up and it is a bit cloudy.