McNaught's Comet

Aussieroo

So who else has managed to get some shots of McNaught's comet? I think these belong in the "Nature" forum but I could stand corrected.
Our camera group went out of town up a look out hill and took some photos last night. Here are 3 samples. A little too much noise for my liking so I may have to try again before it leaves us totally.

Phyxius

Cool shots AussieRoo, especially that first one.

Skippy

Aussieroo wrote:

So who else has managed to get some shots of McNaught's comet? I think these belong in the "Nature" forum but I could stand corrected.
Our camera group went out of town up a look out hill and took some photos last night. Here are 3 samples. A little too much noise for my liking so I may have to try again before it leaves us totally.

Hi there Aussieroo, I finally got to see it last night too

Im just stunned at how big that tail is, you couldn't help but see it.
Heck I was so excited I called out to my neighbours to come out and see it, they were just as excited as me.

I didnt see it till after 9.30pm, but Im sure it was visible long before that.
What time of the night was it when you guys went out to shoot it ??

I hope to get some pictures of it too..... today I will take my camera with me to work and hope these clouds clear up by tonight.

You got some good shots, I see what you mean about the noise the couple I took sucked so bad I just deleted them.

Thanks for sharing........ Skippy
.

Aussieroo

Thanks Skippy, very nice of you to reply.
It was well after 9.15 before it became visible in the night sky. I htink as it draws further away from, Earth the more darkness is needed before it is visible. The later you wait till it gets close to thehorizon the more the tail becomes visible. You are quite right it is hard to miss with the naked eye would have to be cloudy to miss it. About 9.45 it was starting to become at it's height to photograph but I had to leave to pick my wife up from work. So tonight she is free and wants to see it as well so will make a return wisit to the hill outside of the city and see if I can improve on these three. The later it gets the slower shutter speed you need. I ended up with about f2.8 @ 30 seconds so keep changing your settings till you hit one you are happy with. If your camera has the noise reduction setting it would pay to turn that on as well.

I look forward to seeing what you manage to capture.

Serrator

Fantastic captures! Very nicely done and presented!!

Aussieroo

Thank you Serrator,

I ended up with about f2.8 @ 30 seconds I used the 70-200mm lens They were all at 70mm and 2 were at 30 seconds and the last was at 20 seconds. I added the telecomunications tower for perspective. At the full 200mm zoom you could quite get all the tail in so that gives you some idea how big it is.

JohnDC

Really great shots, Ralph. I tried to get some from the coast of California, but it was just a small, dim blur on the horizon. I heard it it was supposed to be better in the southern hemisphere, and your pictures are spectacular proof.

The antenna tower is a nice touch to show us how big the comet is in your sky. Thanks very much.

Aussieroo

JohnDC wrote:

Really great shots, Ralph. I tried to get some from the coast of California, but it was just a small, dim blur on the horizon. I heard it it was supposed to be better in the southern hemisphere, and your pictures are spectacular proof.

The antenna tower is a nice touch to show us how big the comet is in your sky. Thanks very much.

Don't tell me there is something in Australia that we have bigger than you guys!!?:D:D
Seriously though thank you for your comments I am pleased you enjoyed the shots. I thought the third shot I should have been further around to my right to get the whole tail in. It isn't as easy as it looks at night peeping through the view finder trying to manually focus and compose. I may get another chance tonight. Looks like it will be cloud free again. With last nights experience, lets see if I can't improve on what I have.

gus

You got that ever important tail AR Nice shooting.

Ive only had 2 clear nights so far & here are my 2...1st night.....2nd night.

Aussieroo

gus wrote:

You got that ever important tail AR Nice shooting.

Ive only had 2 clear nights so far & here are my 2...1st night.....2nd night.

Thanks "Gus/Ratty"

Your shots are a great display of the tail as well. I do like the saturated colours in this subject it isn't over done. Can I say that IMHO your text across the photo spoils it. I know there are as many schools of thought regarding doing this but I much prefer to leave it off. With the sort of programs around these days it is easy enough to remove the text in which case one has to wonder at the value of using it. I like the way in your second shot how it appears to be going to hit the ground, nice late shot.

gus

Aussieroo wrote:

one has to wonder at the value of using it.

Exactly the same reason that blimp floating around our capital citys has 'HOLDEN' stamed right across it.

Aussieroo

gus wrote:

Exactly the same reason that blimp floating around our capital citys has 'HOLDEN' stamed right across it.

Okay good point. Holden Huh! Had that here late last year on its way up to the Bathurst 1000 race. Never did get a good shot of it. Chased it all over town but when I turned right to catch it up it turned left. It can move and I never did catch it.:-(

Awais Yaqub

Fantastic work ! weldone
never saw them falling here

PossumCorner

Skippy wrote:

... I finally got to see it last night too ....

Aw Skippy and others, half your luck, we've had soft cloud cover or smoke every time I look for it, now time is running out and still cloudy. Trying, trying.

pug8

I'm so sorry I missed seeing it live. Thanks for posting the pics, they're great.

Aussieroo

Thanks everyone appreciate your coments.
Here is a shot I took last night of the McNaught Comet. It looks like it dropped a piece as it went over. It was a coincidence that this small fire started while we were shooting. Makes for a great effect I thought.