Comet McNaught, made it's sunset appearance in southern skies on January 15th. Having a house with windows in the west facing wall, it seemed appropriate to try photographing this celestial event. I was very disappointed in Halley's Comet, the 76 year cyclic visitor, known to have been very bright on former visits. And I have memories of seeing a spectacular comet in the night skies years ago. Too many to remember when, or even which comet. But I do remember going out in the middle of the night to view.
The view from the front bedroom window, with sunset rapidly approaching. The comet was supposed to appear just after sunset, though the "just after" bit was never well defined, and the location relative to sunset wasn't either. But that's not going stop the determined!
Still no sign of the comet. It may have been behind the trees, of course. And note there is another problem - the layer of cloud/haze on the horizon. This was probably from bushfires around Dubbo, in central NSW.
The sun almost gone, and no sign of the comet.
All gone, still no comet.
Seven minutes later, and still no comet, but the cloud/haze on the horizon is quite visible.
File matching: NOTHING MATCHES: 'dsc_2827-detail.%' Ah! That's it. Well, except the tail is going in a strange direction, and it's moving up in the sky. Hmmmm, more likely an aircraft vapour trail, perhaps from Canberra Airport. And not long after this, it disappeared altoghter.
The wider view of the western sky. Just visible in the larger view of this image is Venus, below the power lines, off to the right.
And so no comet seen. My brother Peter, Yvonne and son Keiran were south of Sydney, out in the country, and did see the comet. But no photos. Friends in Sydney who did see it described the appearance as being like a smudge in the haze.
Although this was the best night for viewing because it was the brightest, Comet McNaught would be visible for several more nights. Unfortunately, the next two nights were already booked, but Thursday was free. Alas, Thursday night turned out overcast.
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