Comet McNaught

[abramson]

Here's a picture of comet McNaught yesterday, just before setting behind Cerro Catedral:

[julesstoop]

Thanks! I was waiting for this :)

[Dollan]

Very cool! With any luck, this will be something like the image I managed to get (it's still on my camera).

What kind of camera did you use?

...John...

[buggs_moran]

Very nice Guillermo.

[abramson]

What kind of camera did you use?

It's a Canon Powershot A520. That shot is taken through 10x50 binoculars, camera handheld, bonos on tripod.

Tonight the comet was even more spectacular. I will upload some more pictures tomorrow, it's late now.

Guillermo

[LordFerret]

Nice! Thanks Guillermo!

[Dollan]

It's a Canon Powershot A520. That shot is taken through 10x50 binoculars, camera handheld, bonos on tripod.

Tonight the comet was even more spectacular. I will upload some more pictures tomorrow, it's late now.

Guillermo

Hmm. Mine is a Canon Powershot A530. I might have to try this through the binoculars thing..... Although I think I've pretty much missed the rest of the comet's visit.

...John...

[chris]

Wow . . . That's a beautiful photo. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. The skyline is amazing--I need to visit Bariloche some time.

--Chris

[abramson]

Hi, all. Here's comet McNaught on Monday night, setting behind Cerro Catedral. It has moved further south. Tonight it will be even more to the south, and will set to the left of the mountain, and we'll have a few minutes more of comet! The camera is again the Canon A520, this time just its own zoom, 4x optical.



Yes, Chris, the skyline of Cerro Catedral is very beautiful. It's also good for climbing/hiking.

Regards,

Guillermo

[julesstoop]

Thanks Guillermo! Beautiful skyline indeed.
By the way, what's your estimate on the comet's current brightness?

[abramson]

By the way, what's your estimate on the comet's current brightness?

Being a (very!) extended object, and in the twilight, this is difficult to say. The nucleus, however, is certainly much brighter than Mercury (which remained invisible even when it was very near, especially on Sunday). I would even say that the nucleus is at least as bright as Venus, which appeared farther East.

I remember Hale-Bope as brighter than this one but, as I said, the sky was darker. Today McNaught will be against a darker sky. Yesterday the tail was impressive, let us see today!

Guillermo

[abramson]

The comet was even more spectacular yesterday, 16 January. Have a look (the full resolution image is in my webpage). People started to call the radios saying that there was some strange light over the mountains.
Guillermo
(PS: By the way, guys, I barely need to mention this: if any of you ever come near Bariloche, by all means you will be welcome at my place.)

[LordFerret]

That is an excellent shot! The tail really stands out in that one. How is it the tail should curve like that? Does it have anything to do with its speed and proximity to Sol?

[abramson]

That is an excellent shot! The tail really stands out in that one. How is it the tail should curve like that? Does it have anything to do with its speed and proximity to Sol?

Thanks. I'm sure that the shape of the tail emerges as the result of many physical agents acting together. The solar wind pushes the gas and dust of the coma, away from the Sun, and forming the tail. But even if its particles would move in a straight line at constant speed, along the radius vector of the comet, as this moves along its curved orbit, the tail would lag behind arching away from it. But the movement of the material is surely more complex, giving the characteristic curvature and fan.

Guillermo

[abramson]

This was yesterday. Today we rest, we are exhausted from these evenings. If you follow the link, you will see that there is some structure barely visible in the widest parts of the tail. We hope to see more of this tomorror. Australians and New Zealanders that observed 12 hours later, and saw the tail against darker sky, took incredible pictures of the tail.

Guillermo

[PlutonianEmpire]

This reminds me of seeing a comet of similar (tail) shape when i was a kid (around the early to mid 90's), except that it was EXTREMELY red. bright red. i saw it during and/or after sunset in the suburbs of minneapolis.

[abramson]

This reminds me of seeing a comet of similar (tail) shape when i was a kid (around the early to mid 90's)

Could it be comet Hale-Bopp? It was in 97, and I also saw it, when I was living in Italy. In this picture also the blue plasma tail appears, something I still have not seen in McNaught. I shot this on film, digital cameras were not in the hands of the public 10 years ago! McNaught is surely the most photographed comet in history!

Guillermo

[PlutonianEmpire]

No, it was before hale-bopp, because I saw hale-bopp on a night as clear as that one, and hale bopp was white, not red.

[Sky Guy]

Congratulations on your spectacular view of Comet McNaught.

Last weekend on Saturday and Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing McNaught and its tail in broad daylight without optical aid! It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen in the sky.

[abramson]

Hi all. Yesterday, a miraculous clearing in the middle of a huge cyclonic center that left us without the comet for three days, allowed us to have one more night of observation. The comet is now seen against a dark sky, and the wonderful structure of the tail that you have probably seen in pictures is seen with the naked eye. It is just incredible. Today it's overcast again, and raining, and it seems that the bad weather will last a week.

Here are a few pictures of yesterday observation. The first two are averages of 5 shots (its darker...). The third is a single shot, and it has the ISS crossing the tail of the comet. By the way, I haven't been able to find any reports or photos from the astronauts at the ISS. Aren't they interested in astronomy? Yesterday there were crowds at several places in Bariloche, I never imagined anything like this.

Guillermo