 Comet McNaught
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Tesladownunder
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Registered Member #10
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424
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It was a 3 minute exposure hence the streaky stars. Chris was propped in a comfortable position against the post to reduce body sway in the wind which was moderate hence the blurred bushes. He was under strict instructions not to move a muscle or he would have to do it again. Sometimes (?often) teenagers are good at doing nothing 
Th foreground lighting from sodium streetlights some distance away was about right although it gave a yellow cast which I haven't corrected for.
A couple of people have queried the "full" moon, but the glare of the crescent saturates everything. It is seen clearly with a 0.3 sec exposure as opposed to 3 minutes. Someone even sent me a photoshopped version with the crescent made visible.
The comet fan is not as visible as it was a few nights before and the moon does give a lot of light pollution now. There is also some light pollution from the suburb I was in and the local town/city of Bunbury. I did look at a few other spots that night but the fence was a big plus, still allowing views to the water for the moon reflections and also the distant town lights. The rightmost speck of light on the horizon is a lighthouse.
The other problem was that the camera wasn't level. At these low light levels you don't see much through the viewfinder and I didn't pick it up in the preliminary shots.
Interestingly a couple of people have said that they prefer the previous similar shot with my other son Michael as having more "intrigue". Maybe because it does fit better into dividing the subject into thirds and is a bit darker but with better comet fan definition. Also the comet is a bit hidden. Shame about the focus and timing on it though.
This photo made it to page 3 of our local paper.
Personally (totally unbiased) I have the best foreground of any comet shot on the web. The fan is not as good as some and the profesionals who did multiple overlaid exposures (like EVR does) or bigger lenses, don't have the star trails. Also I didn't get my best shot until after the moonlight became troublesome but very few other shots on the web include the moon. I have had request from two astronomical places for permission to use this photo an it has also doubled my website hits once it was included in Space Weather.
Peter
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