Dear All
I have been impressed with the images of the comet posted here.
I took this image tonight from my bottom paddock with a simple Kodak cx7525 digital camera. It is a 4 sec exposure on a tripod. I have also taken some frames with a pentax645 but will have to wait for developing. They will hopefully include venus and the thin moon.
The sky was crystal clear tonight in Brisbane (where I live anyway). Not a cloud in sight. Tonight I thought I'd try some wider shots with tracking using the StarTracker rather than through the telescope. Here is tonight's effort. All stacking and processing done with Registax.
Image 2 shows the huge extent of the tail. This sequence of shots was taken 15 minutes after the head had disappeared from view. The large glow at the bottom right is from the Woolworth's distribution centre about 5 km away (Grrrr).
G'day Guys,
After last night's cloud-obscured effort in Calamvale (near Brisbane), I decided to head west and drove out past Ipswich. I hiked for 20 minutes through some pretty rough scrub only to round a corner and discover a huge cleared area, leading up to a very promising slope. After climbing to the top, I waited for McNaught to put in an appearance, and boy oh boy it was worth the effort.
I hope that the rest of you also had a great experience tonight (esp the Canberrans). It's great to be part of something like this and it's a fantastic community you've got here - glad to have joined :-)
BTW: I added an image of Venus and the 'thin' Moon for Terry B. Looking forward to seeing your piccies after they're developed.
Thought I'd show a couple of images from my session tonight on the Gold Coast. Wasn't the sight of such a thin crescent Moon great! And the naked eye view of the comet and its magnificent tail, fantastic!!
Equipment is Pentax K100D with 70-300mm lense at F4 and various speeds and exposure times.
Cheers,
Steve
We went up to Whites Hill Recreation Reserve tonight for the clubs annual January gathering. Thankfully this year there wasn't the usual thunder storm or solid cloud.
We we're treated with crystal clear skies and being able to see to within 2deg of the horizon I was happy .
Here's the best shot so far of the comet, with so many great one one is enough. Plus the moon and Venus looking lovely in the sunset.
Dennis I LOVE your shot!! I was tempted to use the wider lens but not that way. What a great shot!!!!
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earthlight
Last edited by earthlight; 20-01-2007 at 11:57 PM.
hi,isn't this comet awsome.easy take photos of,mine was taken with a digital camera.the display it gives at night is fantastic.from here in texas,queensland ithe tail is like a large fountain spraying water.
I had a go tonight with a crappy old 2MP Canon Powershot A40.
Last night I could swear I could see the tail wrap right back down to the horizon naked eye. My mum came and had a look with me and said she could too.
I have no light polution between me and the comet, just the Indian Ocean, so I decided to try and catch this, and I think I have.
The photo is a stack of four rediculously grainy shots @ 400 asa (not really grain... noise) from a very dodgy camera, and then levels and gamma adjusted, all done in Photoshop. This is the first time I've ever processed an image or stacked so..... eh.
The stacking helped reduce the grain massively, even so it was still very grainy so the image is shown pretty small to make it kinda smooth out a little
Wasn't trying to get a high res shot, just bring out the extent of the tail.
Edit: to give an idea of how $*#& this camera is, added one of the 4 noisy images HERE, LOL
Ventured down to a nearby beach tonight and took some pics, little bit windy and a hazy horizon present ....quite a few people out looking at the comet
I was with the BAS at Whites Hill yesterday evening and used the clubs scope and astrovid to try to capture the comet. I'm not real sure of the details of what I did, but its roughly:-
2a.jpg - 50 frames stacked in Registax 4, from astrovid and 200mm LX200 f/10, 6 frame accumulation (I think thats how you would describe it), captured to Medion PMP. Stretched, Contrast bumped and brightness dropped in Registax.
3a.jpg - 100 or so frames stacked in Registax 4 from astrovid and 200mm LX200 f/10, 4 frame accumulation, captured to Medion PMP. Stretched, Contrast bumped and brightness dropped in Registax.
6a.jpg - 150 or so frames stacked in Registax 4, from astrovid and 200mm LX200 f/6 ,4 frame accumulation, captured to Medion PMP. Stretched relentlessly, Contrast bumped and brightness dropped in Registax
Interestion to note how the way the tail seems to be divided. I noticed it in binoculars on Thursday, and I'm glad the astrovid seems to have captured it as well.
Tony
BTW Welcome Jimbo, glad you could join after we met on the ridge near Algester. I looked up google earth and the lights straight down the road we were on was probably Forest Lake... Swanbank is further on in that direction.
Here are another couple of wide fields of C 2006/P1 McNaught with a setting crescent Moon and Venus. Taken at 7:30pm from Whites Hill Reserve, Brisbane. Here is an inventory of stuff according to Starry Night Pro:
These images are fantastic. Congratulations on some great efforts folks. I haven't seen the comet since Wednesday, due to cloud and rain, although I did get to see the tail poking up from behind the cloud last night. Here is a shot taken way back on Wednesday, and an animation I made is here http://home.mira.net/%7Ereynella1/as...m_17-01-07.gif
(4 Mb file, dialup unfriendly)
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I've posted 3 more pics from tonight here: 
