Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught aka The Great Comet of 2007. The sky was still bathed in sunset colours when I took the photo. Comet McNaught was one of the brightest comets ever recorded, reaching a magnitude of -5.5. Venus is around -4, so the comet was brighter. I’ve even managed to see comet McNaught at noon, during full daytime. The comet actually put an amazing show in the Southern hemisphere. I was faced with a tough decision at the time. I was at the beginning of my career as a photographer and I had to choose between buying studio gear or going to the Southern Hemisphere to see and photograph the comet. I bought the gear.

Date and place: January 11 2007; Cornetu, Romania
Camera: Canon EOS 300D
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 66
Exposure: 9 x 0.6s
Aperture: 5.9
ISO: 400