Well, I've just come in after having a good look at the comet. I had my 10x50s and had them on a tripod, so it made it easy to show the kids and everyone else who were standing around.
Luckily the skies in Adelaide were clear right where the comet was!
Here's my effort at capturing it.
Konica Minolta 7D, Sigma 70-300mm @ 300mm, ISO 800
After consecutive evenings of staring at clouds Andrew (Middy) and myself finally got a decent view of the comet. Yesterday we visually got it for a few seconds through binos and through his dob.
We set up on Andrew's front lawn and tonight looked the best so far. We managed a combined time of about one minute with the comet in two sightings.
Below is the lovely sunset we were treated too (didn't come up as well on the picture - taken with a Canon 710IS point and shoot).
The other three show the best view we had of the comet (ie the biggest gap in the clouds) The close up is a full size crop. These images were taken with my 400D @ ISO 200, 0.5 sec shutter speed using my 4" ST refractor with a focal length of 500mm at prime focus. The shots suffer from a little camera shake as I pushed the button, but I will soon be picking up a remote to overcome that sort of thing. Andrew took a fantastic shot through his dob made even more great by the limited time he had to take it.
Love the tree, Matt and Julian, yours is breathtaking. But all the others are good too - thanks for sharing and letting me live vicariously here behind the clouds.
Dennis,
It's been a real trial these last few day hasn't it.
Yesterday was the worst.
After packing up because of rain, I was sitting the car looking out the window, the clouds parted on the horizon. The camera was packed up and in the back of the wagon. Everytime I went to get out of the car to get the camera, it would rain.
Sit in the car, no rain. Open the door, put a foot out, the rain would start. Honestly, it happened half a dozen times.
I don't know what I did to deserve such Karma.
Got the Comet again tonight, although high cloud interfered yet again Still can't really complain as comet and tail easily visible to naked eye. Here is a 1/4 second exposure with 350D + 200mm lens @ f3.5 and ISO100.
As the other Andrew (astro_south) said, we finally managed a decent look at the comet tonight. Managed to snap off 3 decent photos afocally through the Dob. This is the result of stacking those 3 images plus a bit of histogram stretching to bring out the tail.
Still can't really complain as comet and tail easily visible to naked eye. Here is a 1/4 second exposure with 350D + 200mm lens @ f3.5 and ISO100.
