According to CdC using the latest elements Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) becomes circumpolar tonight (2011-12-29) for Sydney (33:43S) and all points south.
Newcastle (32:55S) 2011-12-30 (rises and sets at midnight)
Port Macquarie (31:26S) 2011-12-30
Brisbane (27:30S) 2012-01-01
Rockhampton (23:23S) 2012-01-02 (rises and sets at midnight)
Mackay (21:09S) 2012-01-03
Townsville (19:15S) 2012-01-04
Cairns (16:55S) 2012-01-05
Darwin (12:28S) 2012-01-06
Clouds drove me out of Esperance, with my last view being the morning of the 27th. Back in Perth now, so probably won't see it again unless something unexpected happens
Just processed a timelapse I did on the 27th. This one covers almost 5 hours of comet, from around 10.28 pm -> 3.17 am. For this I tracked the milky way and comet in azimuth only to get maximum coverage. Lotsa airglow visible. Also, if you look carefully in the 2nd half, once the head rises, it is possible to track the comets movement against the stars.
The last few days have been alot of fun! Just want to say many thanks to everyone on the forum, in particular Ian Cooper, for the great observation reports, images and discussions. Been great.
thursday morning 29th, only second time seen This famous comet of impeccable pedigree! - dark site - first pic a pano of 3 stitched single 30 sec shots 50mm f1.4@f1.4 800 tripod 350D - wide shot the original old skanky kit lens @18mm f4.5 152 secs tripod
easy 30 plus d naked eye tail, not something you see too often! saw zodiacal light pretty awesome havent seen that in a while! lots of meteors!?
cheers
Please take a look here at the tribute video I've made of comet Lovejoy.
I've used some of the pics from this thread (more explained on link supplied).
If you have any comments etc would you please be kind enough to post on the thread for which I've supplied the link for instead of here. Thanks!
Thanks to Chris, Andrew, Steve and Kearn for today's images. They all confirm the note I sent to John Drummond today regarding his image from Gisborne, N.Z. I felt the tail went just beyond Beta Centauri on his pic compared to one he had taken the day before. On that basis I plotted the comet's tail on Megastar to compute a length of 24.7, say 25 degrees.
This confirms the tail is shortening at a rate somewhat comparable to it's growth rate earlier this week. I managed to see part of the tail, the ten degrees below Alpha Cen, through thickening haze at 2.30 a.m. this morning. I was surprised at how bright that piece was. Due to the haze and the proximity, no pun intended, of The Pointers, it was too hard to tell by eye if the tail carried on. Looks like Kearn had the perfect conditions.
Colin, thanks verymuch for your kind thoughts. It has been an absolute pleasure to view all of your fine efforts to record this event for posterity. That goes for all of the excellent contributions to this forum over the past ten days. The story isn't over yet. We have until atleast next Friday morning before the Big White Lady starts taking over the entire stage for a few days.
Thinking about it, has there ever been a period where the best part of a Great Comet's apparition coincided so perfectly with the waxing and waning of the Moon? A good part of McNaught's display was lost to Moonlight at the wrong time. Perhaps Hyakutake fits the bill as much as Terry's latest as far as that is concerned?t certainly has helped not having to account for Selene!
Just processed a timelapse I did on the 27th. This one covers almost 5 hours of comet, from around 10.28 pm -> 3.17 am. For this I tracked the milky way and comet in azimuth only to get maximum coverage. Lotsa airglow visible. Also, if you look carefully in the 2nd half, once the head rises, it is possible to track the comets movement against the stars.
With the naked eye and 7x50 binoculars I thought the 26 degree long tail ended at the mag 4.7 star SAO 252531 which is 3.5 degrees west of beta Cen.
See post #369 in this thread.
A good part of McNaught's display was lost to Moonlight at the wrong time.
I was living in Dorkland at the time and a good part of McNaught's display was lost to rain and cloud. In fact I only saw McNaught on 4 seperate occasions and only 2 of these were cloud free
T it was too hard to tell by eye if the tail carried on. Looks like Kearn had the perfect conditions.
Hi Coops, I am pretty rusty at comet obs! and perhaps a little slaphazard in my tail guesstimates of late, (i know i was a few degrees over last friday morning perhaps) i was just using the waving the old fist at extended arms length method , ...i wasnt posting to proper cometobs type site, and so wasnt thinking how they might go on the permanent record and affect historical stats .. having said that .. i'm pretty happy to say the last dimmer part of the tail was visible to my eyes up to the coalsack as it climbed into darker skies, .. i dont have a planetarium program on this computer anylonger, and my charts are packed away .. but i know the FOV of my 50mm lens on that camera is about 25d, and tail is certainly longer than that, even if it isnt the brighter section of tail.. i was at nearly 36 d south in 360degree lightdome free dark skies when making obs ..
re McNaught in jan '07 , in Adelaide we had horrendous conditions during best few days of apparition ,, steelmelting heatwave, great storms, bushfires, blinding blanket bushfire smoke from victoria - it was an arsonists paradise! i am on record describing it as apocalyptic conditions back in old threads of the day, but days either side were much better
.. i'm also more of a fan of great comets being in pristine dark skies, as opposed to bright twilight, or variations on twilight, from head to tail tip preferably
Fantastic time lapse Colin! You've inspired me to do another one, this time longer, before I head back to the big smoke after my holidays!
What program did you use to put them together into the video? Im finding it hard to find one that dpits a file i can view! And did you shoot them in RAW or just jpg?