Comet McNaught from Mt Dandy
Comet McNaught from Melbourne, Australia
Gary and I managed to see 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 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.
- The Siding Spring Observatory in Australia has some splendid pictures of the comet tail and background info.
- Astroblogger has posted some good images from around Australia and New Zealand of this great comet.