Not necessarily Liz - you're a good way north, and in Townsville at next New Moon on 12 June it will still scrape up to 3 degrees altitude in NE in very early dawn twilight. On the 9th of June for example, with a thin waning crescent moon that won't interfere too much, it will reach 8 deg before it gets washed out. On present trends, the comet will be a very easy naked-eye object by then! If you can find an ocean view to the NE, WOW!! So we southerners will be relying on you as our eyes-on-the-skies!!
Cheers -
Hmm, thanks Rob, I will be looking from the beach (at my front door!!)
Ok then Liz, we will just have to train you to make some comet obs! We need do-ers!
Yikes !!
Down beach this am for another look, but sky pretty bright, even at 5am, with a nearly full Moon in the west.
Couldnt see comet in binoculars, bit too far to take Bella (my Dob).
Will have a look in a few days.
Took a few pics, and magnified, but cant see anything out of the ordinary.
Report 1 - no comet, no blob and no tail.
As the "Two Ronnies " would say, "It's Goodbye from him and it's Goodbye from me" as far as this Comet goes, as there has not been a clear morning up here for about three weeks, ditto this morning
Had a look this am, but sky pretty Moonlit. Checked the area in binocs, but couldnt see any fuzzy comet areas, though still very light in binoc.
Will put up some images, and tho did try to shoot some Raw, and stack them, the result = disaster, so what you see is what you get.
In 2nd pic, the bright star is Beta Andromeda, and comet should be to the lower right of it.
... spending waaay too much time on this, but studying image 3, and can kind of see a tail, or could be wishful thinking.
Great perseverance Liz!
I checked the comet position for yesterday morning, guessing at about 5:30 am, and I reckon you've got a trace of it, marked in the attached image (cropped & enlarged). That is spot-on where it should have been. The jpeg compression confuses things a little but there should be some good info in your original subs.
Hey there Liz, you deserve a medal for determination .
You can do it! Just a matter of time .
Ha, thanks Suzy. I am just so glad I did see it last week, but would love to capture it on a pic before it disappeared.
Popped down to the beach again from 5am - wow, the position of the comet is very low in Andromeda, and the half Moon not too far from Pegasus now.
Bful am though at a balmy 18 dg.
Couldnt see the comet in binoc alas, but took heap of images, though not jumping out at me when downloaded.
Image 1 - about 7 images (only about 15 sec cos of Moon) stacked in DSS. (thanks Rob) Tried to process in Gimp and Media Impression, but not a great improvement.
Image 2 - about the same as above.
Running out of time, and at New Moon ... well, I will certainly give it a go, but could be hovering in the thick atmosphere just above the water.
Still better off than you guys further south though.
Mercury at right of frame over Maggie Island.
... oh, should have said that I think it maybe one of the 2 stars here??
Rob and Chris, what do you think?
Rob, can you do your clever processing on one, to see if it helps??
You got it Liz! Nice green-blue comet, and dare I say it, a trace of a tail??
If you go back to your pre-jpeg compression stack and work the levels harder you should get a nice result. Crop it to a fairly small size (so you don't get so much jpeg compression in making it forum-friendly) and post it again! Congrats!
You got it Liz! Nice green-blue comet, and dare I say it, a trace of a tail??
If you go back to your pre-jpeg compression stack and work the levels harder you should get a nice result. Crop it to a fairly small size (so you don't get so much jpeg compression in making it forum-friendly) and post it again! Congrats!
Cheers -
Yeah, it had to be there, but I was looking just a bit under where it should have been. Yes, I can see abit of a tail!! Still not too bright though?? Thanks Rob!! Will email re 'work the levels'.
ps.... Rob has processed the image and there is no tail, ? artifact.
Wow, it really stands out in this shot. Good work team.
What a great bunch of people to help you with all the determination and perseverance this took.
Wow, it really stands out in this shot. Good work team.
What a great bunch of people to help you with all the determination and perseverance this took.
Thanks Suzy!!
Out again this am, and the comet is now naked eye!!! Am very lucky to live where I do, thus getting good views of this comet.
Might even drag Bella (scope) down to the beach tomorrow to to check out the comet and tail . Bella doesnt like to get sand in her toes, but what the heck.
Managed to get some better images this am, thanks again to Rob telling me to push the ISO up to 1600, whereas I had had it at 400 due to Moon.
Couple of images, stacked but not processed very well (hopeless at this stage), but a tail is definitely visible!!
I have been trying for the past 3 mornings to see it, i had been getting up at 4am, sticking my head out the window to see clouds, then head back to bed only to wake to a clear horizon........i had a perfect night last night but i hurt my back at work and i decided not to risk any further injury as i had a job of trying to stand up, it's still a little sore today.
!!
Good work team.
