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Back in January 2007 we had a magnificent view of Comet McNaught for about 5 days. I spent most of these evenings down in Fremantly on one of the main hills right on the waterfront, which gave me a clear view as the comet soared overhead. This comet is a non-periodic comet so it will be a while before we see it like this again

This was our first summer of the trial daylight savings time so we were sitting at close to 21H00 in the evening and it was only the beginning of nautical twilight.

In the astronomy quiz I recently asked a question about apparent magnitude and it's relationship to the brightness of Comet McNaught. As OWN so ably answered, Comet McNaught was on a par with the second brightest star in our firmament.

The following photos were taking on film with a 55mm lens and then digitised, so not the best quality, but are a good example of exactly how bright this comet was.

Timepilot, nice pics!

Thanks JenB

WOW what an awesome sight TP! Must have been wonderful watching it!

PL, it certainly was - I went down 3 nights on the trot because it was such phenomenal sight.

I saw comet Hale-Bopp back in the mid 90's as well - but it was really low on the horizon just after sunset and fairly faint. This would of much greater magnitude and high in the sky so very easy to see.

Must have been a sight!! and its really bright as it does not look all that dark yet

Ods, when the pics were taken, the sun was about 5 or so minutes below the horizon. It was very visible with the naked eye and using optics it almost looked like a small planet!

Great stuff, thanks TP thats something i hope i see one day

Beautiful photos Timepilot...thanks for sharing your sighting!