Comet Lovejoy from New Mexico (Dec 6)
Taken by Alan Dyer on December 6, 2013 @
Painted Pony Resort, near Rodeo, New Mexico
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 75/1
Aperture: f/2.5
ISO: 1600
Date Taken: 2013:12:06 10:30:27
|
|
| More images
Details:
We came here for Comet ISON but have had to settle for Comet Lovejoy, a decent enough comet in the morning sky, but not the spectacle we had hoped for.
This was Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) as it appeared this morning, December 6, under very good New Mexico skies marred only by some scattered clouds and patches of airglow. The wide image is a 50mm lens shot of the scene looking east.
The comet was visible to the naked eye, but just barely as a fuzzy star. It took the long exposure photos to bring out its blue ion tail, stretching 6° to 10° across the sky and pointed down toward the sunrise point in the east.
I took the close-up shot with a 135mm telephoto lens showing the bright head and faint ion tail. The tail here measures 6° long, though a deeper exposure might have picked up more, up to 10° long. But I think reports of seeing a tail up to 5° long with the naked eye are wishful seeing. The comet and tail are not that obvious, and we are in superb skies.
Still, Lovejoy makes a fine comet consolation prize, substituting for the ill-fated Comet ISON. It was a beautiful morning to enjoy Lovejoy in the quiet and star-filled New Mexico dawn.
Photographer's website:
http://www.amazingsky.net
|
|
|
