Lovejoy - what a tail!

[lukebl]

If only it were visible with the naked eye. Good to have three clear nights in a row to catch up with it.

Canon 700d, 14 x 4 minute exposures, 250mm f/4.8 Newtonian. Guided on the comet's head with ST80 and PHD guiding.

[kenny k]

Exellent capture Luke...well done.

Kenny

[David Smith]

Great image Luke. 3 clear nights in a row, now that's just greedy

[Trevor N]

Excellent image Luke. Very atmospheric. Trevor

[lukebl]

Cheers, folks.

Here's an animation of the frames. Note how the 'V' in the tail appears to get narrower over the period. Is that real, or just an artefect caused by the darkening sky? It looks real to me.

[sharkmelley]

Lovely tail detail in that image!   I love the animation - well executed.  I'm guessing that the apparent narrowing of the fan is caused by the comet (and fan) rotating.  I've seen similar effects in almost all animations of Lovejoy's tail.

Mark

[Beulah]

Incredible stuff. That's great work, Luke, great to see the individual jets of sublimated matter, well caught. Fabulous animation.

[Mr Spock]

I like the tail detail. Really good image.

[happy-kat]

I just love this animation

[lukebl]

.... I'm guessing that the apparent narrowing of the fan is caused by the comet (and fan) rotating.  I've seen similar effects in almost all animations of Lovejoy's tail.

That's really interesting. So maybe it looks as though the jets are coming from the same plane, like along a sort of fault line, rather than randomly ejected all over the surface of the comet?

[kev]

I would agree, thats what the series seems to show.

Bet there are a few professionals that would love to see this!

[Pete Presland]

great image! The tail is amazingly long in some of the widefield shots, but still very faint though.

[orion25]

Great shot and awesome animation sequence; never seen Lovejoy quite like that! 

[The Admiral]

Cheers, folks.

Here's an animation of the frames. Note how the 'V' in the tail appears to get narrower over the period. Is that real, or just an artefect caused by the darkening sky? It looks real to me.

There's an interesting blog on the Rosetta blog site, posted on 22nd, about how the 67P/C-G comet's coma varies significantly over time. Might have some relevance here I guess.

[prokyon]

Wow, great! Details are stunning!

Cheers

Werner