Comet McNaught as seen from Christchurch, New Zealand, on the evening of 22 January 2007.
Photographed for Public Address using a Nikon D200 camera.
Nice shots Brian! My view from Dunedin on the 18th is here.
No glimpses since due to the inclement weather...
Lucky you...In Wellington, its been cloudy every effing evening
We were walking along the coast towards Raglan and saw it last Thursday while sleeping on a beach and looking out to sea just after sunset. Dead perfect ringside view out to the West, as the trail grew longer...except, having been away from civilisation for a few days, we had no idea what this 'crazy star' was. Which possibly made it even more exciting. The only cameras we had present weren't up to the task, unfortunately.
Brian:
Thanks for making your photos available on Public Address. The comet looks exactly like it did in real life, i.e. bloody amazing.
I'd been trying for a week to catch a glimpse of it, but until Monday night was entirely defeated by the inclement weather: cloud, fog, rain, hail, sleet, frogs falling from the sky, and so on.
On Monday night there was a gap in the clouds and we drove up into the Port Hills. In typical sheep-like NZ manner we joined a crowd of people who looked like they knew what they were doing. Venus became visible just after sunset, and lots of people were pointing to it. When it dipped below the horizon everyone packed up, and drove back down the hill to Christchurch.
I was thinking that I'd somehow missed the comet. Perhaps it was so small that I hadn't been able to see it? Or perhaps what I'd thought was Venus was actually the comet?
We waited for another half-hour or so, and then gave up. But on a whim I decided to drive home along the summit road (up the Port hills). After a few hundred metres we suddenly saw this fucking huge comet in the sky! Completely unmistakable, but entirely invisible from the spot where we'd originally been standing.
Totally unearthly and -- without exaggeration -- one of the most amazing sights of my life.
Moral of the story: never believe that other people know what they're doing when it comes to comets...
For what it's worth, there are pics from Scoop readers here, here and here. I believe there are more to go up.
Myself, I got a brief glimpse of Tuesday night from Lower Hutt before the cloud came over, but the great one way last Friday from my backyard.
Unfortunately, by the time I realised the batteries on my camera actually were charged the damn thing was dropping out of view. I clambered onto the garage and the head was behind a tree.
I got a couple of decent shots of the tail.
Holding out for an obviously clear night so I have the motivation to rush off to somewhere with less light. Surely there's still time...