If the comet had been just a month earlier, I suspect all our friends and families would have been getting Comet McNaught calendars and posters for Christmas!
Phil, your shot is gorgeous. It takes the spectacle to a new level when the head gets so low that it turns red.
My contribution to McNaught. I'm only posting it, so that years from now I can prove to myself that I actually (and finally) did see it
What a great sight it was!
Hi Icebreaker, welcome to the forum !
That is a great shot, especially with someone in the foreground (is that you ?)
You can almost hear the thoughts "OMG this is awesome!"
Thanks for posting it.
Being stuck up in North East Arnhem Land enduring the current wet season and constant cloud cover, there is almost no chance of seeing comet McNaught.
It's definetly McNaught!
Our finacially flushed club president made his way to the astrocamp on his own and didn't even bring me back a T shirt.
There was a bit of Horizon cloud again last night but I managed a few images from my roof. Looks like it will be nice and clear tonight, I would be mad not to make the most of it before the waxing Moon becomes a problem.
It was clear over Canberra all day, until it was show time and a big cloud rolled in so it only allowed me to have a brief glimpse of the comet. This is the best picture I could get, it was still a bit light, but better than nothing! I'll try again tomorrow.
I was up on Stromlo last night mate. Where were you. I didnt even get a shot off! The cloud didnt roll in..it just magically appeared right on showtime in a 20 minute window of clear sky to solid blanket.
Here's one from Lang Lang beach, VIC, 22 Jan, about 10pm. F30 compact digital. 15 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800. Most of the tail you see in the photo was naked eye visible.
what an amazingly photogenic comet!! we finally had a decent bit of weather and I had my first long clear view at a dark sky site - looked like a story book steam train/puffing billy smoke plume as it chuffed off south over the horizon -WOW
single unprocessed/uncropped image 4 sec exp iso 1600 from jpeg
I have a nice collection of 10 sec raws @ iso 400 i can make a mosiac of the whole tail from eventually! and some film shots to come hopefully also, really needed to take darks,
it is fading unbelievably fast
my second 'sodium comet' after v1 (that did have a blue ion tail tho), read a lot about 'sodium comets' (some disparaging - have heard them called 'dirty') in the past, now ive seen a great one!
Comet McNaught on the 20th January from Mt White. Who would have ever thought that it would be necessary to use a wideangle 28mm lens to capture the WHOLE tail of this comet. Most of the earlier images all used digital or telephoto shots. This wideangle shot resulted by fault as I was doing a panoramic image of the Hawkesbury river 600' below Mt White, 40kms north of Sydney city. ItF I had only known what lay hidden from naked sight Then would have got out old faithful best lens, 135mm, for a series of shots going northwards to assemble a collage. I Have one Pic, clear as anything, but just the top of the tail with no head of the Comet. anyhow here is the image on the 28mm wideangle.my " Heavenly Finger"
Sorry the image will not upload, try www.nsas.org.au media
Last edited by Paul Shallow; 02-02-2007 at 12:36 AM.
Reason: up loading image 4th attempt
Like many others in Melbourne, I was worried that our first good clear skies in Melbourne would find the comet having faded past its best, but it's still doing fine!
These photos from Mt Macedon last night (Monday 22nd January):
Notch
we finally had a decent bit of weather and I had my first long clear view at a dark sky site - looked like a story book steam train/puffing billy smoke plume as it chuffed off south over the horizon -WOW 
COMET McNAUGHT 20th Jan 2007 , the whole of it
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