Comets and Bloodsucking Parasites

I see it's been a year since I last wrote something. This was never intended to be just a collection of astronomical photos, but here's some more anyway.

We were recently very fortunate to get a clear evening in which to see Comet McNaught. I must admit that I hadn't got around to even looking for it as we don't have a clear view of the Western horizon, but Adrian in his enthusiasm dragged us out to go Comet hunting. I'm glad he did. We ended up at Meadowbank Park looking across the Parramatta River to Homebush Bay and Silverwater (Silverwater may sound like a pretty place, but I've always suspected it was named that because of all the mercury dumped in the river in years gone by). Despite the usual light pollution and even fireworks going off at Homebush, we had a pretty clear view.

My ageing yet trusty Canon G2 can only do exposures up to 15 seconds, so you can only just make out the roostertail effect of the tail, but I still got some reasonable pictures.

This 15 second exposure makes the sky look a lot brighter than it was at this point.

This is only a 4 second exposure, which is much closer to how it appeared to the naked eye.

I also took along the Astroscan telescope for a closer look and shot a few pictures through it. Not too bad for a non-tracking mount and short exposures..






It would have been nice to have spent a little longer there but we thought it wise to retreat from the swarms of mosquitoes that descended upon us after sunset. I still wish I'd brought back the evil insect repellent purchased in Alaska in 1996. It could kill mozzies in an instant but it made me dizzy when I used it..