Eagleseye

Christmas Day evening, almost clear skies.
We are up late anyway so I got set up to capture Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2. It is extremely low in the southern sky, only about 7 degrees above the horizon at it’s highest around midnight. With the telescope almost horizontal, I managed to get the comet centred in the cameras field of view. The comet was easily visible in my new 17 x 75 binoculars and tonight it was just high enough to avoid going behind the neighbours TV aerial. The small scope auto-guided superbly, so I took 50 x 30 second subs.

Despite the very low altitude of the comet, I am really pleased I was able to get a reasonable image.
It doesn’t show the delicate tail that others further south and in darker skies are getting, but it’s good enough for me (for now!).
This comet can only get better as it heads northwards and becomes brighter. Here’s to a great 2015.