I somehow think these will be my last photos of Comet McNaught. They were taken a couple days before the full moon, and the sky has since been too bright to clearly see it. I could make it out with naked eye on Jan 30, but not since. I suspect that when the moon dies off enough to allow the luminesence of the comet to show, it will have dulled to such a degree due its travelling away from the sun that it will remain invisble. Or, it's tail at least. We'll see...
These photos of Comet McNaught were taken on Saturday January 27 from the disused railway station in the town of Hamley Bridge. The obscuring effect of the light of the waxing moon (more than half full) was more than made up for by the absence of big city light polution. Apparently the comet was stunning at its zenith there.
I've now taken several hundred photos of McNaught, over a total period of about 5 hours. My tripod and remote shutter control make this possible. I'm learning about technique and method. In this photo, the exposure time is 4s.
These three were taken over a 40 minute period. Exposure period is marginally higher (8s) than I had it the night before. I've kept sensitivity down to ISO 100. Both tail and 'flare' (caused by solar winds) are visible if you look closely.
In the following photo, the exposure period is 15 seconds.
My little obsession with our interplanetary traveller continues. My technique of capturing the images of it has improved, but that is counteracted by fact that it is growing dimmer to our eye as both it moves further away from us and the sun, and the moon grows steadily brighter.
Below is a photo taken within a minute of first sighting to the naked eye (about 40 min before the above two shots). I can make out the comet in the picture. Can you?
This was Comet McNaught tonight. I didn't have the exposure time set properly, too busy thinking about everything else. To the naked eye, at its best the tail was more visible than it has been until now. There can't be too many more nights when the shots will be great, the moon is nearly half full.
I only caught our friend McNaught as it approached the smog/light/atmosphere layer last night. Not only is it beginning to fade in terms of its own inherent light (counteracted to some degree by it being visible for longer after sunset), but the moon is definitelywaxing - and adding its obscuration to the whole affair. Apparently after tonight, it will start to fade to our eye. Can't complain so far!
I only managed to get a few rushed pic's last night. This was my favorite, even though the camera was tilting.
The view on Jan 22 was about the best we've had, what with weather and clouds. The above is a relatively high zoom and displays McNaught's prominent tail (supposedly 100 million kilometers long).
It has been travelling through space for millions of years, and apparently won't be visible like this again for at least another 100,000 years. It's moving away from us at a speed of 60 km per second. At the moment it is about 145,000,000 km distant. These are amazing numbers, fill me with awe at the imensity of the Universe. And yet, when Comet McNaught first became visible that night ...
... it was an almost intimate feeling.
Comet McNaught was again visible on the night of January 17 in Adelaide. As you can see from the photos, we were lucky the clouds allowed us the view they did at the time. I hear we can't expect such visibility for the next few days due clouds. And rain. Yay!
It was quite spectacular tonight, visible from around 9 and only vanishing into the haze on the horizon about 9.35.
This photo was taken around 9.
Comet McNaught really became visible around 9pm tonight. This is how it looked then, in the fading dusk. It looked very spectacular through binoculars(I have an old pair of 8x30mm Zeiss glasses).
This is what it looked like about 15 minutes later (narrow apeture and 24 times the exposure length (8 seconds)).
The track of aircraft coming in over our house to land at Adelaide airport took them directly past the comet.
For interest's sake, here's a comparison of the brightness of the comet (left of chimney)and Venus (right of it).
Tonight was apparently the best night to see Comet McNaught, albeit only for around half an hour after sunset. Tonight is its brightest, although tomorrow it is visible for longer. 
Tonight it was much brighter than Halley's Comet ever was back in nineteen-eighty-whatever.
The above photos were taken from the balcony in the space of about 10 minutes.
While I was watching the comet, a 'waterfight' (drought style) was happening beneath me on the street.
