Great Comet Lovejoy

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 23, 2011472 views23 comments

Hi All,

After a battle with clouds, I finally got to photograph comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy from rural Argentina. The comet is easy to see with the naked eye from the South Hemisphere from 3am to dawn, it displays two tails one made of dust and one made of ionized gas.

It's a wonderful show I took zillions of photos and chose this one to show just a portrait of the comet without distractions.

The "purchase print" link will take you to a gallery on my website where I'm uploading more images as I process them.

Merry Christmas to all my NPN friends!
Luis

Comments

23 comments

Comment posted by Mitch Erwin on December 23, 2011 at 3:37 PM

Wonderful image Luis! Makes me want to hip on a plane and head South!

Registered on April 24, 2006, 98 Posts, 656 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Baumbach on December 23, 2011 at 3:51 PM

Very cool. I think my favorite is image #9 on your web site.

- Dan

Registered on November 1, 2003, 473 Posts, 7980 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on December 23, 2011 at 4:01 PM

Wow, the comet that survived a brush with the sun! Glad you were able to capture this Luis!

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Tonia Graves on December 23, 2011 at 4:17 PM

Luis, what an awesome opportunity! This is a lovely image with the colors and stars in the sky. Congrats on catching this!

Registered on October 29, 2011, 92 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Walt Sterneman on December 23, 2011 at 5:08 PM

Beautiful Luis. I love it.

Registered on March 24, 2010, 73 Posts, 1268 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on December 23, 2011 at 6:28 PM

Wonderful starry, starry night Luis. Don't think I have seen a comet captured like this. Excellent!

Merry Christmas Luis!

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on December 23, 2011 at 6:48 PM

Lovely, the gradient from pink to blue is a pretty canvas for the comet.

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on December 23, 2011 at 6:58 PM

Luis, This is wonderful! and really interesting to see. Merry Christmas to you as well.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on December 23, 2011 at 8:22 PM

Awesome! I would love the opportunity to see something like that. I love the stars, and agree that the pink to blue gradient is very nice!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 23, 2011 at 9:28 PM

One cannot help but think that Bethlehem must be just over the horizon here. Lovely image.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Graham on December 23, 2011 at 11:48 PM

Beautiful image, and good looking series on your website. Congrats on being able to see and capture this comet.

Registered on August 22, 2006, 842 Posts, 2824 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on December 24, 2011 at 11:39 AM

Very neat, and well captured. I like the way you've composed this.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on December 24, 2011 at 12:13 PM

Love the comet! I wish I was doing this stuff back when Halley and Hale-bop were around

Great stuff Luis

Registered on October 25, 2010, 41 Posts, 831 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on December 24, 2011 at 12:43 PM

Luis, I was wondering when someone in the Southern Hemisphere was going to post a shot like this

..such an awesome scene, I prefer the portrait shot (#2) on your website but this is very nice as well. How long was your exposure?

Merry Christmas also!

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Abdullaziz Bin Ali on December 24, 2011 at 1:14 PM

Wow, unique

Registered on May 31, 2009, 112 Posts, 1590 Comments

Comment posted by Enrique Vizcarra on December 24, 2011 at 10:19 PM

Fantastic

Registered on September 10, 2009, 223 Posts, 393 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on December 25, 2011 at 10:56 AM

Gorgeous colors, and a great series of photos overall.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Luis Argerich on December 25, 2011 at 1:33 PM

Thank you for the feedback and Merry Christmas!
The comet is still very bright to the naked eye and is really huge. A fantastic sight from rural areas.

Zack: I was shooting 20 seconds ISO3200 F2 tracking with an Astrotrac Mount.

Registered on December 22, 2009, 91 Posts, 1349 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 25, 2011 at 2:45 PM

Luis,

Awesome! What a fabulous nature image. Excellent! No nits or suggestions. Must have been a great sight to watch.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on December 25, 2011 at 2:47 PM

Luis,

I recently bought the Astrotrac unit, and looking forward to trying it out. Astrophotography was my main interest before specializing in Landscape nature. I checked out your website, and there is lots of cool astro photo's