Astroblog: More Stunning Images of Comet 2006 P1 McNaught!

Friday, January 19, 2007

More Stunning Images of Comet 2006 P1 McNaught!

Thursday night was completely clouded out here (the amazing red glow in the photo is sunlight reflected off the clouds), and coulds and smoke have covered lots of south-east Australia. Still some amazing images are coming from Australia and New Zealand, and it looks like comet McNaught is just getting better.

First off is this amazing image from Graham Palmer of New Zealand. My jaw hit the floor when I saw this. Note that as this is a 15 minute exposure, the comet won't look like this to the unaided eye, but it still will be big and bright with a long tail. Next up is Terry Lovejoy, with this great image from QLD. The Ice in Space Forums have lots of good southern Hemipshere images, as does the Spaceweather gallery. The bottom line is "Keep on Looking", comet McNaught isn't finished yet, and may well be a Great Comet.

In the Northern Hemisphere, you can still see the tail of the comet just above the horizon, see here for a great shot.

Labels: 2006/P1 McNaught

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:41 am

Comments:

Graham Palmer's shot is simply stunning... wow.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:45 am

According to Graham's site, that was a 15 second exposure - not 15 minute as you wrote.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:17 pm

Yeah, you're right, 15 seconds it is, that's what I get for trying to type with minimal sleep. Apparently Rob McNaughts images are pretty close to what you would see visulally, if that's true, then it's a Great Comet and I'm missing out big time.

# posted by