And about time too! With all our bad weather. Hi All, Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught is now briefly gracing our dawn and evening skies, and after a long spell of bad weather, I finally got a chance to see and photograph it this morning, January 10th, in pre dawn skies, close to sunrise. After waiting for the comet to appear an ever brightening eastern sky, I finally spotted McNaught with my celestron 15x70mm binocualrs very low in the east-southeast at 7.51am local time, perhaps on one degree above the clear horizon against the backdrop of a bright orange sky - and what a sight it was !

I estimate the the comet was about one full moon width in length from nucleus to the faintest end of the very short tail, in all only a half a degree in length at best. This really is a very small comet, but what it lacked in size, it certainly made up for in brightness. I used the planet Jupiter as a guide, and made out that it must have been shining at magnitude -1.5 - the brightest comet visible in our skies since Hale-Bopp!!

For a brief period, I could see the comet with the naked eye, but only 10 minutes or so, before succoming to an very bright sky. A sight which I will indeed never forget! Do try and get out while you can to see this comet, it's worth the effort!

Details: Comet McNaught 10.01.2007 at 7.57UT, Canon 300D, 480mm lens at f9, 0.6 seconds exposure, ISO 100
Keith..

http://www.irishastronomy.org/user_r...02007webs1.jpg

Nice one Keith. That's a great morning shot. Not easy when it's so close to the horizon, well done!

__________________
By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

Hi Keith
nice image I saw the comet this morning when I droped my wife off at work. I had my camera with me and I got a shot but it did not turn out. great work thanks Paul

Keith, that's a very lovely picture - wonderful composition, dark line of clouds and the comet luckily right above them.

__________________
Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.