Great Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught Image Gallery
Welcome to the nightskyhunter comet McNaught gallery. Discovered by professional Astronomer Robert McNaught in August of 2006 at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia during the course of the Observatory's search for near Earth asteroids and comets that could one day threaten civilization. C/2006 P1 McNaught has become the most talked about great comet of modern times, as it brightened it surpassed the magnitude of Hale-Bopp in 1997 and became the brightest comet in 42 years since the great sungrazer Ikeya-Seki of 1965 grabbed the attention of the world. McNaught attained an incredible magnitude of - 6.0 during perihelion passage around the Sun in mid January when it was seen beside the Sun in broad daylight with the naked eye, complete with tail.
When it emerged from the solar glare in late January in the evening sky for observers in the Southern Hemisphere it became an incredible sight with the naked eye, sporting a high surface brightness strongly curved dust tail extending 160 Moon diameters in length with stunning striations/synchronic banding the likes of which have never been witnessed before. The tail was so long that it was visible from the Northern Hemisphere while the coma was visible far below the Equator!. No astronomer alive today has ever seen a comet like this before, the images which where captured by amateurs around the world are without doubt the best comet images ever taken. Below I would like to share with you a sample of these images documenting the comets changing appearance through its breathtaking apparition from both Hemispheres. This gallery is my own tribute to the great daylight comet of 2007!
Northern Hemisphere Images
Daylight Images
Southern Hemisphere Images
Northern Hemisphere Tail Images
Despite being a Southern Hemisphere object in late January 2007 the comet's giant Peacock-shaped dust tail extended 80 degrees from the nucleus. As a result it had been observed and imaged above the horizon from the Northern Hemisphere!
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A special thanks to everyone who sent in their images, visual observations, and poems of this spectacular comet. To conclude the gallery here is the discovery story of P1 by Robert Mc Naught himself.
