Comet Leonard In The Southern Hem

Comet Leonard is visible in our sky after sun set in the SW. Check it out with a pair of binocs.
Find it here in mid Dec:

Fair go Adrian, it's a bit too close to the horizon and I won't be able to see it. Can you move it a little higher for everyone to see?

Thanks. Axtyr.

Yeah ya might have to climb a tree.
There is too much rubbish in my line of sight as well but still might be worth a visual scan with binocs after sun set.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/comet-leonard-might-become-2021s-brightest-2022/

Captured this one last night Adrian from the middle of my street ~18km out from Melbourne's CBD (Bortle 7 skies which means fairly well lit/polluted).  It is a single exposure on a tripod with DSLR at 1.6sec to minimise star trails,  I'd use the permanent pier I built with GEM mount if it was higher up,  house is in the way at that altitude unfortunately.  If I had time tonight which I won't (clear skies it seems),  I'd do multiple exposures and stack together in the hope of capturing details of the comet's vapour trail.



It is getting higher above the horizon, last night when pic was taken it was about level with Saturn, tonight should be a little higher in the sky relative to Saturn.

An ok shot. It is quite visible and seems to have brightened a bit.
I will try tomorrow night but not with my P900 . The resolution of this cam is not good on point light sources.

I did eventually see after one, I repeat one very slow single cloud that hung around for an hour or so,and it was the only cloud in the sky
Hopefully tomorrow night will see off Murphy law


cheers moredeep

Missed out last night due to cloud and the next few days a re going to be cloudy.
There will be plenty more comets to come as they are very common.

The last come I managed to get a shot of was Comet McNaught on Jan 22 2007 from my back yard.
15 sec exp with 135mm f1.8. 15 sec exp. Just after sun set.

To be quite honest it was very difficult to see,even with binoculars, a bit of a disappointment.
I suppose beggars cant be choosers when it comes to comet spotting,but I think I was spoiled when I saw Halley's comet.

cheers moredeep

Yes it is a bit dim but visible in binocs (just) and you will need a decent scope to get good pics.
Some good shots here if you click on the Real Time comet gallery with a few shots from Australia.
https://www.spaceweather.com/

Tonight is another dead loss from my view point with plenty of cloud.

A rough guide where to look for the comet.

If you’re looking for more info, https://www.spaceweather.com/ is a really good source for up-to-date info on what’s happening “up there”. Highly recommended.

Managed to get a few more shots with the Nikon last night, hope this time it's a little better than OK...  the tail is visible.

Yeah that one is passable mate, not too bad at all.
Can you explain in detail how you achieved that pic??
At least you saw it. I have not even been able to spot the thing in binoculars. or 200mm reflector or 100mm Cat. Too much light pollution and upper atmospheric haze n cloud.
Went to a lesser light polluted area last nightbut still no luck. It must be a real kitchy one...I could see Venus, Saturn n Jupiter and a few stars but no go with the comet..

While waiting for the comet to pop into view I snapped this little dark spot object which I presume was an aircraft??  (I cropped this image this morn)


Then it did this!


Then this.

I think you got in the first photo Adrian,  except it is going the wrong way.  If you look closely, just under the small cloud and half way down to horizon, there's a distinct white object shooting up towards the top left of screen, tail is about 5mm length and a very discernable pointy head  .

I've been able to view it from bortle 7 skies in Melb suburbs (my first photo, but no tail visible in that shot).  My second photo was taken in bortle 3 skies along the coastline.  It is a stack of 12 images each ~2sec each to minimise star trails at that zoom length, taken at ISO-3200 and 300mm.  I could also see it in binoculars and naked eye (albeit no tail).  That's been consistent since it first arrived, it is getting higher in the sky each night so you should be able to catch a glimpse at some stage before it disappears, clouds & light/haze pollution permitting of course.

Here's a single image (no stacking) taken just last night around 10pm for comparison, similar conditions/camera settings except this time I extended the telephoto to the full 500mm:

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Let me say i know nothing about comets but i have a question that has concerned me for some time.

That is, is the tail of a comet simply a shadow of the comet? Can the comet be moving towards the tail depending where the sun is?

4rd wrote:I think you got in the first photo Adrian,  except it is going the wrong way.  If you look closely, just under the small cloud and half way down to horizon, there's a distinct white object shooting up towards the top left of screen, tail is about 5mm length and a very discernable pointy head  .

I've been able to view it from bortle 7 skies in Melb suburbs (my first photo, but no tail visible in that shot).  My second photo was taken in bortle 3 skies along the coastline.  It is a stack of 12 images each ~2sec each to minimise star trails at that zoom length, taken at ISO-3200 and 300mm.  I could also see it in binoculars and naked eye (albeit no tail).  That's been consistent since it first arrived, it is getting higher in the sky each night so you should be able to catch a glimpse at some stage before it disappears, clouds & light/haze pollution permitting of course.

Here's a single image (no stacking) taken just last night around 10pm for comparison, similar conditions/camera settings except this time I extended the telephoto to the full 500mm:

" />

I actually prefer the single frame shot that shows a lot of fine detail in the comets seemingly very very long  tail that appears to extend beyond the field of view of your pic.

So I finally located comet Leonard. last night.
It is quite large in my 7 x 50 binocs but only visible using averted vision.
My Nikon P1000 could not see it even at din 6400 and it will only go to 1 second at f 4.5. Several background stars were visible but the pics were not a blaze of stars.
Seeing last night was not good with quite a bit of haze. The P1000 was able to pick out stars in the microscorpium and achieved some shots of Jupiter, Saturn Venus. Maybe tonight I will try the P1000 Night Sky setting thet uses longer exposure times. This mode  takes a time lapse movie of the night sky (Not star trails) and I can pick out individual frames.
Tonight I will also use my f 1.8 135 mm Promura lens on a K100D. This cam has a B setting, so I will be able to stretch the exposure time a bit.

I find it difficult to believe that Nikon did not include a B setting in the P900 & P1000????

Finally got a pic of the comet. A very crap pic. Will try some different cam settings tomorrow night. Too many monster mozzies at the moment so I gave it a miss.

135mm f 1.8 22 sec exp ISO 200

far from crap, looks good to me,  you mention using "Night Sky" setting tonight, however last night's pic seems to have minimal star trails at 22 sec which is pretty good - hopefully more/clearer skies for you tonight...


edit: just realised the first post was in the morning and second post with picture later that night using "Night Sky" setting,  yep, does well in reducing trails and as mentioned a good picture of this year's "Christmas Comet".

The last shot was taken with the Pentax K100D On B.
I could not crop the pic in that cam so tried the card in the P900 & P1000 but they would not allow the trimming so I put the pic on the comp, magnified the image and took a pic of the comp screen with the p1000 ( I think ?) and cropped it further in that cam and that is the image in the last post.

Anyway tonight I will increase K100D ISO to in the range of 800 to 3200 , shorten the exp time and see what happens, might even try the P1000
Night Sky short movie mode....I bought some mozzie repellent.

great pics through out the year Adrian-thanks

A few more beers tonight and I'll be up amongst the stars



cheers moredeep

Thanks mate and cheers to you and have a great New Year,
Have not put up another pic because the comet looks the same as yesterday but slightly dimmer and has only moved a tiny tad higher in the sky.
I have the p9oo making a night sky movie of the comet but I am not even sure that the thing is in the field of view. It is too faint and not visible in the view finder. Am hoping it will pass through the field of view as the night goes on.

Oh well, the video bombed out.
Set the cam for 150 minutes of vid and got 4 seconds of nothing at normal play back speed.

yep, all too familiar, can often be a fickle business trying to get settings, gear, weather, and all the planets aligned at the same time...  hopefully Leonard hangs around intact for a few more nights, the comet has faded a bit however reports of impressive tail formation and going into outburst, worth another go tomorrow perhaps, unfortunately it is all clouds here in Melbourne tonight so no luck at this end

A clear sky here last night and all I could see was comet zippo
I scoured the sky with 7x50 specs
Has it gone??



cheers moredeep

It is very dim even through 7 x 50s.
If you look towards roughly 230 Azimuth degrees and approx 60 decrees in Alt at around 2100 ish pm you will be in the ball park.
You will need to scan the sky slowly and look for a small weak fuzzy slightly elongated grey patch in the sky. You will catch it as it passes through your binocs field of view
Scan up and down rather than horizontally. and scan several vertical strips in either direction just in case the 230 degrees is a bit off target.

It'll be tricky to find amongst the floaties and old welding flashes in my eyeballs, plus after 60+ years the UV has made my lenses a tad cloudy
Happy days are here again


cheers moredeep

Another storm passed through this arvo so likely will not get a pic tonight.

Yeah I can relate to the floaties and the occasional flash of light. ..Probably a detached retina or brain tumor or something.
When I look at stars through the scope they look like silvery dandelion seed pods. not nice sharp points of light.

4rd wrote:far from crap, looks good to me,  you mention using "Night Sky" setting tonight, however last night's pic seems to have minimal star trails at 22 sec which is pretty good - hopefully more/clearer skies for you tonight...


edit: just realised the first post was in the morning and second post with picture later that night using "Night Sky" setting,  yep, does well in reducing trails and as mentioned a good picture of this year's "Christmas Comet".

Thinking back, the pic was 15 sec not 22.

Brain tooomur unlikely as I think it is working fine, always


cheers moredeep

This chart/list will give you an idea of what a star/comet might look like to the unaided human eye.
http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/MagScale.html

Comet Leonard is currently at around magnitude 5-6

From this you will notice that  that the chances of seeing the Christmas Comet even with binocs is not great unless you know where to look.
Astronomers around the world are all talking about how wonderful this comet appears.
Well yes it is a pretty one if you have the gear to photograph it and to enhance the resulting pic. Like an auto guided time exp cam or telescope a photo staking program and maybe photoshop.

For example; The previous pic I posted here was a 15 to 22 sec exp through a 135mm F 1.8 lens on my Pentax K100D. The comet was not visible to my eyes in the camera view finder. The only star I could see (but only just) in the finder was the bright one near the bottom right of the pic. The photo was a lucky shot because I pointed the cam to where I though the comet might be.

This pic of comet Leonard is not remotely like what the comet looks like to the naked eye.