knocked up a rough and ready montage/panorama of p1 and its enormous tail using 5 images taken in succession @ iso 400 50mm lens 350d, photomerge/ps, from last monday night 22nd jan - while not very pretty - hopefully when i use the raw versions (converted to tiff) and one of those great pc panorama proggies on the pc (and do the post processing/enhancement first before merging, artificial darkframes ect. lol it might come out okish?
it is a dirty looking scene - but it was dirty looking comet at this point to my eyes - reminds of the natural view fairly well, wasnt spectacular skies really at the time, ok tho, transparency wasnt very brilliant, but seeing was, and it was certainly dark - i was too close to victoria and there was still a little smoke haze from there down there. despite the rains.
if it works, its a nice big file for print? i dont think ill ever understand why i just didnt put the 18-55mm @ 18 mm on too much excitement I expect - it was a bit dusty for changing lenses, i think
I notice in my photos of 2000/p1 that there are very numerous very fine striae in the tail of THE comet, roughly perpendicular to its length. Rather like a feather. They show up best on inverted images at 4Mp or more These photos were taken a 6Mp on a 300D at iso 800 for 5sec at f55 and f/1.8. But have been resampled. I hope they still show the feathers. Has anyone else seen them? Any info?
Ron
Last edited by Ron Garrett; 01-02-2007 at 12:17 AM.
Reason: sell error
Sorry FringeDweller. but I went straight to bed after posting. Yes it was from the 24th (GOOD GUESS!!!). The feathers are present also on photos taken on the 25th. Photos taken on the 23rd were over light polluted city. The later ones were taken after driving to Kilmore and setting up on a country roadside. I haven't processed my 18mm photos but I doubt if they will match your montage!!! I'll have to go all the way out to our dark site at Heathcote.
By the way, Postalot, your dates-times for posts are OUT (Or are you using 'real'time - it confuses me)
My last post was TODAY not yesterday and was AM not pm
Ron, i'm not sure what you mean by fine striae, you mean finer than the obvious naked ones? have you seen the STEREO images, interesting to see it from that angle! thats a different view!
not many scientists are interested in comets, its all old hat? (EDIT: by that i mean following and monitoring known comets progress, except in some cases) some are interested in studying the sun/solar wind via comets tails, some are interested in discovering them, specially earth orbit crossing ones, some are interested in the building blocks of life/earth, and comet's role in that, but , mostly they just belong to the advanced amateurs/semi-professionals/hunters and then there is the 'bright' comet 'freaks' like me EDIT: oh, and the millions of the public that enjoyed this show!
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 02-02-2007 at 02:27 AM.
Not a great picture I know, too long an exposure for one thing, so the head of the comet is rather elongated, but I thought I'd include it because I rather liked the trail from the 'plane, given that it was a 30 sec exposure you should be able to calculate the rate that the light was flashing! (yeah, I know, we don't know when it entered the cameras view....)
Was taken on the 25th, couldn't get a decent amount of light with a shorter exposure. Should have increased the ISO and put up with the noise - too late now!
By the way, has anyone got any recent pics through a scope? Any changes in the striations in the tail?
...
By the way, has anyone got any recent pics through a scope? Any changes in the striations in the tail?
I took some images through the 25cm on the evening of the 30th, it looked fairly similar to my image from the 29th, so I didnt post it. The striations were really only seen on wider angle photos anyway. My 30mm and 85mm photos from this morning didn't really show a lot, the tail is fainter than a few days ago.
I'm investigating getting some posters done of my 20mm wide angle photo showing the tail framed between a Grass Tree and a Cyprus Pine on the 20th, and maybe the 85mm photo from the same day showing the tail against twilight... I wonder how much demand there would be for them?
I'm investigating getting some posters done of my 20mm wide angle photo showing the tail framed between a Grass Tree and a Cyprus Pine on the 20th, and maybe the 85mm photo from the same day showing the tail against twilight... I wonder how much demand there would be for them?
cheers, Gordon
Another nice image Gordon.....
I can`t see why you wouldn`t sell a few, they are beautiful shots!! , maybe ebay has a few up for sale already?...shall look later.
swannies1983..good to see that it is still holding up despite the full moon!!...keep shootin...
Cheers Gary
This is a photo my mate took i am submitting it for him as i thought it was an amazing photo all in one while not just of the comet this captures it so well
Can you give some details on that image? I was sent it via email and it looks like a mockup rather than a real image.
My thoughts exactly, if you zoom in on it you can see blurring where parts have been stuck together, though in fairness that could just be panorama parts joined.
It looks like someone has been playing with photoshop to me, the lighting and shadows are not consistent across the image, and I'd suggest the time exposure on the lightning is not the same as that on the fireworks or the people, none of whom are motion blurred. What are those people on the right hand side looking at? its definitely not the fireworks, comet or lightning!
Do you reckon a fireworks display would be allowed to proceed with a close electrical storm that could set off charges with a strike (or via electrical interference?). By the way, I wouldn't be sitting on an open beach with lightning striking nearby.
But, why didn't they use a more striking photo of the Comet in the construction?
I don't think it's a construct, a stitched panorama maybe, but not a fabrication.
Having a good knowledge of the area, and seeing a very similar view(albeit from another location along the coast) I can say that if it is a construct, it is a very accurate representation of what it looked like to my eye on the night! The lightning was there, so too the comet, and there were 5 firework displays in various places in Perth on Australia day.
From my position on the coast, it was awesome as I could see all 5 fireworks displays and the lightning.
Who cares if the camera had to be panned and then two or three images stitched to form a panorama?
BTW, according to Cartes du ceil(see link below), the image is real, ie, the distances between the pointers at far left, the comet, and Venus just to the left of the lightning right on the horizon. Try it yourself, location is Perth, 26th Jan, approx 9:15pm (inc. DST = +9 GMT)
Also, the lightning was striking over the horizon, it didn't get close untill much later in the night.
In my mind, this image is 'real' in that everything in it, I saw on the night, and that if the image is stitched from 3 frames, then the images would have been taken maybe a few mins apart.
Cheers,
Simo
Oh, and I can see lots of motion blurred people!
I had the same initial reaction when I received the image by email this morning. However, it's apparently a fisheye lens image, so the people on the right could well be looking at the fireworks. That said, if it's not a Photoshop construct, it's an amazing fluke.
I sort of go with what simo says...but I reckon the left side of the stitched image is taken much earlier in the evening as the high cloud in that section is still very pink and around the fireworks it looks like deep red of the setting sun on the high clouds. I say its a 3 image stitch taken within a hour or so..not in a close timeframe. ie a few minutes.
Interesting?
Gary