Astroblog: Lovejoy Diary Day 7

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Lovejoy Diary Day 7

Saw the comet again this morning, got up at 3:30 am to mostly clear skies and headed up a nearby hill where I could block out the anoying marine navigation light.

There were some clouds around the southern horizon, but they soon cleared to show comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoys tail streching up past the pointers.

The tail is much dimmer now, still easily seen with the unaided eye if your sky is reasonably dark, about as bright as the large Magellanic cloud. There is no identifyable head.

For imaging I was using 800 ASA and 15 secs exposure.

Chased away from this remaarkable comet by cloud at 4:30 am.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 4:12 am