ASTRO: Comet McNaught

It's been a while since I've posted on here, I try and have a look at the
great images that are posted as often as possible. I see most people I
remember are still active, I haven't seen any images from Martin Germano for
a while, I might have just missed them. I think he had just delved into the
world of CCDing when I last saw some pictures from him, anybody know any
more?
I try and keep an eye on the sky when clear, (not that often recently)
and I managed to spot Comet McNaught on Friday night in the evening twilight
in my Binoculars, by the time I got my digi camera out it had disappeared
into the clouds on the horizon. I wasn't expecting it to be clear tonight,
so was out visiting family. I noticed that the sky was clear and the horizon
to the west was better than Friday night. I made a quick exit and got home a
few minutes after 5pm. Grabbed my binoculars, camera and tripod and ran to
the front of the house. Quickly found the comet in my binoculars, very
bright even in the twilight, couldn't see it naked eye though. Wasted a
minute trying to attach the camera to the wrong tripod, in rushing I'd
grabbed the wrong one. Quick run and I had the right tripod, attached the
camera and quickly set the camera to manual. Started shooting. I found
afterwards that the camera wasn't pointed at the comet, it was out of the
field by about 2 degrees and the focus was set to 20 foot. Luckily I spotted
the focus problem and just by chance I zoomed out on the lens for the last
two shots and this was enough to put the comet on the chip. This is the
second to last shot, in the last one the comet is just about in the cloud.
Picture taken with a Minolta A2, F3.5, 2 sec exposure. I've darkened the
image to try and show the comet a little better.

Regards

Azz

Thanks for posting Azz. This comet may be bright but not easy to image. I
don't think I will even try. Much too low...
Good to see that at least someone managed to see it.
The best picture I have seen of it so far was a combination of several 0.1
second images because the sky was so bright with the sun being so near the
comet.

Stefan

"Azz" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
It's been a while since I've posted on here, I try and have a look at the
great images that are posted as often as possible. I see most people I
remember are still active, I haven't seen any images from Martin Germano
for a while, I might have just missed them. I think he had just delved
into the world of CCDing when I last saw some pictures from him, anybody
know any more?
I try and keep an eye on the sky when clear, (not that often recently)
and I managed to spot Comet McNaught on Friday night in the evening
twilight in my Binoculars, by the time I got my digi camera out it had
disappeared into the clouds on the horizon. I wasn't expecting it to be
clear tonight, so was out visiting family. I noticed that the sky was
clear and the horizon to the west was better than Friday night. I made a
quick exit and got home a few minutes after 5pm. Grabbed my binoculars,
camera and tripod and ran to the front of the house. Quickly found the
comet in my binoculars, very bright even in the twilight, couldn't see it
naked eye though. Wasted a minute trying to attach the camera to the wrong
tripod, in rushing I'd grabbed the wrong one. Quick run and I had the
right tripod, attached the camera and quickly set the camera to manual.
Started shooting. I found afterwards that the camera wasn't pointed at the
comet, it was out of the field by about 2 degrees and the focus was set to
20 foot. Luckily I spotted the focus problem and just by chance I zoomed
out on the lens for the last two shots and this was enough to put the
comet on the chip. This is the second to last shot, in the last one the
comet is just about in the cloud. Picture taken with a Minolta A2, F3.5, 2
sec exposure. I've darkened the image to try and show the comet a little
better.

Regards

Azz

Well done on getting such a good image (and seeing it as well). Glad
somebody on this group has succeeded.
The weather here has not been all that good,and is not likely to improve
so I dont expect to see it myself.
Phil Bishop

Thanks Stefan
I'm just lucky I got it, I came away from the front of the house
thinking I'd missed another chance. I won't get a chance in the evening
anymore, I might be lucky in the morning. I was disappointed when I first
found the comet in my image but after looking at other images with better
cameras, I felt it wasn't bad. Certainly very hard to capture any more than
the actual coma in the bright twilight sky.

Regards
Azz


"Stefan Lilge" wrote in message
...
Thanks for posting Azz. This comet may be bright but not easy to image. I
don't think I will even try. Much too low...
Good to see that at least someone managed to see it.
The best picture I have seen of it so far was a combination of several 0.1
second images because the sky was so bright with the sun being so near the
comet.

Stefan

"Azz" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
It's been a while since I've posted on here, I try and have a look at the
great images that are posted as often as possible. I see most people I
remember are still active, I haven't seen any images from Martin Germano
for a while, I might have just missed them. I think he had just delved
into the world of CCDing when I last saw some pictures from him, anybody
know any more?
I try and keep an eye on the sky when clear, (not that often recently)
and I managed to spot Comet McNaught on Friday night in the evening
twilight in my Binoculars, by the time I got my digi camera out it had
disappeared into the clouds on the horizon. I wasn't expecting it to be
clear tonight, so was out visiting family. I noticed that the sky was
clear and the horizon to the west was better than Friday night. I made a
quick exit and got home a few minutes after 5pm. Grabbed my binoculars,
camera and tripod and ran to the front of the house. Quickly found the
comet in my binoculars, very bright even in the twilight, couldn't see it
naked eye though. Wasted a minute trying to attach the camera to the
wrong tripod, in rushing I'd grabbed the wrong one. Quick run and I had
the right tripod, attached the camera and quickly set the camera to
manual. Started shooting. I found afterwards that the camera wasn't
pointed at the comet, it was out of the field by about 2 degrees and the
focus was set to 20 foot. Luckily I spotted the focus problem and just by
chance I zoomed out on the lens for the last two shots and this was
enough to put the comet on the chip. This is the second to last shot, in
the last one the comet is just about in the cloud. Picture taken with a
Minolta A2, F3.5, 2 sec exposure. I've darkened the image to try and show
the comet a little better.

Regards

Azz

Thanks Phil.
I'd been keeping an eye out on the weather forecasts and looking at the
horizon most of the week but I was just lucky to get the clear patches
between fronts, when it was going dark. I will keep an eye out in the
mornings this week, and try and be a little less rushed.

Regards

Azz

"Phil" wrote in message
news
Well done on getting such a good image (and seeing it as well). Glad
somebody on this group has succeeded.
The weather here has not been all that good,and is not likely to improve
so I dont expect to see it myself.
Phil Bishop

Hey Azz... nice work getting that shot. The comet looks to be fairly
bright?

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
--

"Azz" wrote
..
It's been a while since I've posted on here, I try and have a look at the
great images that are posted as often as possible. I see most people I
remember are still active, I haven't seen any images from Martin Germano
for a while, I might have just missed them. I think he had just delved
into the world of CCDing when I last saw some pictures from him, anybody
know any more?
I try and keep an eye on the sky when clear, (not that often recently)
and I managed to spot Comet McNaught on Friday night in the evening
twilight .........

Azz,

Great to see you posting in a.b.p.a again! That was a neat image of the
Comet M, a very difficult target! You've inspired me to try and take a look
at it!

I don't know what has happened to long-time astro-imager Marty Germano.
He's not posted here for about a year.

George Normandin

Thanks Doug. According to estimates on the net it is brighter than 0
magnitude now.

Regards

Azz

"Doug W." wrote in message
. ..
Hey Azz... nice work getting that shot. The comet looks to be fairly
bright?

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
--

Thanks George. I have had a couple of nights in the observatory but mainly
for testing purposes and all the images I've taken I haven't done anything
else with them. I've never been much on the processing of the images, I do
enjoy taking the images, usually new objects such as supernova, GRB or
comets. I hope you bag it, speculation that it is a daylight object now.
Thanks for the info on Marty, he is still updating his web site, getting
great results as well.

Regards

Azz

"George Normandin" wrote in message
...
"Azz" wrote
.
It's been a while since I've posted on here, I try and have a look at the
great images that are posted as often as possible. I see most people I
remember are still active, I haven't seen any images from Martin Germano
for a while, I might have just missed them. I think he had just delved
into the world of CCDing when I last saw some pictures from him, anybody
know any more?
I try and keep an eye on the sky when clear, (not that often recently)
and I managed to spot Comet McNaught on Friday night in the evening
twilight .........

Azz,

Great to see you posting in a.b.p.a again! That was a neat image of the
Comet M, a very difficult target! You've inspired me to try and take a
look at it!

I don't know what has happened to long-time astro-imager Marty Germano.
He's not posted here for about a year.

George Normandin