another good reason to live in Adelaide
Jan. 16th, 2007 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelaideseanAh, the joy of west-facing shores.
Amanda and I made a special trip to the Grange Jetty Kiosk last night to watch Comet McNaught follow the sun into the sea. The Kiosk is a restaurant built right on the sand dunes, a favourite of mine with great food and (usually) excellent service. We had a table overlooking the beach, upon which I promptly perched my Penguinscope before settling down to dinner. Our waiter was kind enough to raise the blinds and turn off the outside lights so we could scour the skies.
At first I thought we'd missed it in the glorious sunset (see the pic below for the view from our table, grainy because it was taken from my phone), but keen-eyed Amanda spotted it in the end, so our efforts were not for (Mc)Naught. (Sorry.) The view wasn't quite as speccy as today's APOD, what with the lack of ruins in St Vincent's Gulf and all, but it was certainly more interesting than Halley's last visit. The tail was clearly visible, and it was nice to watch a comet set. I've never done that before.
All astronomy should be conducted from fancy restaurants. That's my firm conclusion from this adventure.
Amanda and I made a special trip to the Grange Jetty Kiosk last night to watch Comet McNaught follow the sun into the sea. The Kiosk is a restaurant built right on the sand dunes, a favourite of mine with great food and (usually) excellent service. We had a table overlooking the beach, upon which I promptly perched my Penguinscope before settling down to dinner. Our waiter was kind enough to raise the blinds and turn off the outside lights so we could scour the skies.
At first I thought we'd missed it in the glorious sunset (see the pic below for the view from our table, grainy because it was taken from my phone), but keen-eyed Amanda spotted it in the end, so our efforts were not for (Mc)Naught. (Sorry.) The view wasn't quite as speccy as today's APOD, what with the lack of ruins in St Vincent's Gulf and all, but it was certainly more interesting than Halley's last visit. The tail was clearly visible, and it was nice to watch a comet set. I've never done that before.
All astronomy should be conducted from fancy restaurants. That's my firm conclusion from this adventure.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 08:11 am (UTC)Even with my 300mm zoom it was still blurry, but when you compare it to the jetty it's actually pretty big. (pic here but has lotsa noise: http://ic3.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/015/f/d/McNaughts_Comet_by_arradius.jpg )
I read that over in the US that some people have actually been able to see it in the day, if they block the sun with their hand!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 12:57 am (UTC)I'm thinking about going down again tonight (sans restaurant), if there's anything left of it to see.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 01:08 am (UTC)It's supposed to be visible still for a little bit, at least in the Southern Hemisphere, you'll need a better lens than a 300mm though :(
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 09:19 am (UTC)I tried to spot it from my house, but suspect being both too close to the city and under a smokey haze at present didn't really help. The scope looks pretty cool too.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 04:20 am (UTC)I didn't see the comet. Cloud kept rolling in on sunset. APOD is pretty cool, an amateur astromoner friend introduced me to it ages ago, and it's one of my favourite links. Loved the photo of the comet over Cracow.
Hexagon formation on Saturn
Date: 2007-03-29 12:42 am (UTC)http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2552
Noice!
Re: Hexagon formation on Saturn
Date: 2007-03-29 12:50 am (UTC)