[Offtopic] Comet McNaught

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Hi all :-)
  <http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/366995934/>
 Comet McNaught from Melbourne,
Australia<http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/366995934/>
I managed to see Comet McNaught<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_mcnaught>.
On previous evenings we have had to fight bushfire smoke or torrential rain.
This evening it looked much better so we drove directly after sunset to the
Sky High Observatory on the summit of Mt Dandenong. To our surprise, a small
crowd of observers had already gathered on the steps.

The Comet tail spread for about a 10 degrees upwards, increasing in length
as the twilight ended and the sky darked to a dull burnt orange colour.

I took some pictures of the McNaught Comet looking South West from the
summit. It was tricky to get the correct aim with people walking in front of
the camera and cars driving past with their headlights. I firmly held my
little Cannon A520 digital camera on a safety rail for a 15 second long
exposure. I later slightly cropped, adjusted, corrected the pictures for
digital noise, contrast and saturation.

You can view my small Comet McNaught image slide show
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/tags/cometmcnaught/show/>and one of
the city scape. Of course they pale into the sunset compared with some other
high quality snaps taken by the following.

   - Niel Creek (former student) has published some splendid and
   entertaining photographs here on his deviant art
website<http://neil.creek.name/gallery/v/other/astro/>
   .
   - The Siding Spring Observatory in Australia has some splendid
   pictures of the comet
tail<http://msowww.anu.edu.au/%7Ermn/C2006P1.htm>and background info.
   - Astroblogger <http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/> has posted some
   good images from around Australia and New Zealand of this great comet.

Hope you are all in good health and managed to have a great break :-)

Regards Roland


-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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