ASTRO: Another try at Comet McNaught

After several days of clouds and rain, the forecast for this afternoon
looked promising, I managed to leave work early and be home before 5PM. I'd
got the equipment ready the night before. Initially I couldn't find the
comet as it was hidden by a small cloud on the horizon, after it appeared I
was amazed how much brighter it was compared to when I last saw it on
Saturday night. Easily naked eye in the twilight sky and the tail was
obvious as well. In my 9 x 63 binoculars the tail was about 2.5 degrees
long. The image is again with my A2, set at full zoom (200mm) with a 2 sec
exposure at f6.3 and with a polarizing filter, to try and darken the
background a little, but it isn't that successful being so close to the sun.
This is one of the best of the images I took, I set the camera to full
manual and locked the trigger, occasionally adjusting f ratio or exposure
time and took a total of 112 pictures in the 20 minutes or so.

Regards

Azz

Azz wrote:

After several days of clouds and rain, the forecast for this afternoon
looked promising, I managed to leave work early and be home before 5PM. I'd
got the equipment ready the night before. Initially I couldn't find the
comet as it was hidden by a small cloud on the horizon, after it appeared I
was amazed how much brighter it was compared to when I last saw it on
Saturday night. Easily naked eye in the twilight sky and the tail was
obvious as well. In my 9 x 63 binoculars the tail was about 2.5 degrees
long. The image is again with my A2, set at full zoom (200mm) with a 2 sec
exposure at f6.3 and with a polarizing filter, to try and darken the
background a little, but it isn't that successful being so close to the sun.
This is one of the best of the images I took, I set the camera to full
manual and locked the trigger, occasionally adjusting f ratio or exposure
time and took a total of 112 pictures in the 20 minutes or so.

Regards

Azz


The photo looks exactly what I saw last night. I can only see the comet
by walking out on the ice of the lake in front of me. Strong winds have
the ice moving up and down so can't use it for a platform. I had to
settle for visual only. Even though the ice is plenty thick it is a bit
disconcerting standing over 40' deep water while it moves suddenly up
and down in minor "ice quakes". Clouds moved in today. I saw it
yesterday in the scope by day but photos were a failure by day.

Rick


--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Nice image

I am reminded somewhat of Hyutake by it. The problem with this one is that
its so low down, that even with a supposedly clear sky, the inevitable high
level stuff gets bad near the horizon where the comet is.

Kev


"Azz" wrote in message
...
After several days of clouds and rain, the forecast for this afternoon
looked promising, I managed to leave work early and be home before 5PM.
I'd got the equipment ready the night before. Initially I couldn't find
the comet as it was hidden by a small cloud on the horizon, after it
appeared I was amazed how much brighter it was compared to when I last saw
it on Saturday night. Easily naked eye in the twilight sky and the tail
was obvious as well. In my 9 x 63 binoculars the tail was about 2.5
degrees long. The image is again with my A2, set at full zoom (200mm) with
a 2 sec exposure at f6.3 and with a polarizing filter, to try and darken
the background a little, but it isn't that successful being so close to
the sun. This is one of the best of the images I took, I set the camera to
full manual and locked the trigger, occasionally adjusting f ratio or
exposure time and took a total of 112 pictures in the 20 minutes or so.

Regards

Azz