John Lafferty – Photography

Comet Lovejoy as seen from The Angle, NSW on the mornings of the 24th and 25th of December 2011. Follow the linked images to see the full set including images were a flyby of the International Space Station has been included.

Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is a periodic comet, discovered on November 27th 2011, by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy.

The comet’s path took it through the Sun’s corona on December 16th 2011 and it passed approximately 140,000 kms above the Sun’s surface. It was not expected to survive the encounter, but Sun-monitoring spacecraft, observed the comet emerge from the corona intact

The comet nucleus of Lovejoy is estimated to be as much as 500m before the passage through the corona of the sun. At its brightest the comet had an apparent magnitude of around –4 (about as bright as the planet Venus). It is the brightest comet to appear since Comet McNaught of 2007, which shone at visual magnitude –5.5.

Click here to see all the images from the day.

 This years ride had all the weather conditions. The first two day had very heavy rain andf or the first time in 12 years a day of riding had to be canceled due to rain (+90mm in the mountain!). But the last two days had the return of the sun

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark visit the Australian War Memorial.

On a wet and rainy day, just to make her feel at home

The space shuttle Endeavour is on its last flight and
currently docked with the ISS. Due to the cloud arriving early Sunday morning
this is most likely the last time we will see this shuttle. This is also the
second last flight of any shuttle. Sad to see them go.

The planets of Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars as seen in the eastern sky this morning. As long as the skies are clear and you wish to put up with the cold, this should be visible for a few more days.

Some views from the hills above the The Angle. In the second photo below you can see the Gudgenby River is in flood again.