How I Barely Photographed Comet G3 Atlas (2024)

[@Zero_Point_Energy1]

People THINK they want to go with me, but then when we’re there hours after the “ok, I’ve seen it, that was cool” phase wears off, they realize they’ve made a mistake😂

[@DylanODonnell]

Haha exactly

[@ImranSultan-kk9rh]

Awesome photo and a great story to go with it! Love hearing the backstory behind astro shots

[@DylanODonnell]

thanks for watching it through!

[@lewbarrett]

Ever set up in a clear cut 70 miles from home and have a big buck run right through the setup while celebrants in a pickup are careening down the forest access road firing their pistols in the air? It’s almost enough to make you set up an observatory in your backyard. Great shot and story. Love getting the news and views from the south side.

[@DylanODonnell]

lol that's crazy

[@stefanschneider3681]

Thanks for another very refreshing video 😅🤩! I like them both, the blueish and the naturally colored version you came up with, they are both BEAUTIFUL 😍 . I was quite lucky with the tschtsch-blabla-ATLAS last fall. It was perfect to take pictures right when we were on vacation in Greece, beautiful memories ☺️. But it’s tail was unbelievably long and changed significantly over just a few days, it was fascinating. Enjoy your summer days!

[@Naztronomy]

Your story about the bike sounds like a really nice comedy skit 😂 Great catch! I missed seeing it in the northern hemisphere. It was visible for a few days after sunset. Also about people leaving right as it gets dark, when I was doing outreach for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in October, I had to make several "announcements" to people saying something like "let it get DARKER everyone."

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Loved the whole story I got a giggle, especially the bike incident.

[@philkidd]

Sounds like quite the adventure Dylan! On top of that, your final image (natural color) is beautiful!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks Phil :)

[@Si-fp2ij]

What a night, that sounds like a three stooges skit to be honest 😂 Great comet ☄️ image and well worth the drama Dylan! Cheers Simon

[@johnmcbryde715]

.....and we're all going to die. especially if Dylan tries to help you

[@DylanODonnell]

lol

[@richeygoldberg8549]

Everyone leaving as soon as the sun goes down and not knowing the comet is there is how it is when my wife and I are at Disney World after dark and we are the only ones in the park that notice launches from NASA.

[@DylanODonnell]

Those fools :)

[@theinterstellarfeller]

Great shots of the comet Dylan! That story about the bike rider had me in stitches. Sounds like something I would do. Always appreciate your humor.

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehe thanks man

[@bassangler73]

I understand what you mean about astrophotography. I love to shoot the Milky Way in the late spring months here in the US because of the lack of heat haze and turbulence. So that puts me out shooting in remote locatuons around 3:30 am.. I can never find anyone who wants to go with me. So I always have my trusty Glock 21 .45 acp on my side..When you give it a good think, you are alone, in a remote location, with highly valuable camera gear..A meth-heads dream...lol...Even though i am armed and try to watch around me, i find myself really getting into taking the shots and trying to dial in the perfect exposure and then realize that i haven't looked up from the camera for 15 minutes..lol.. Its kind of a risky game i guess but of all the years of doing it, i have only ran into minor trouble one time. It ended peacefully, thankfully! Anyway, nice shots bro!!

[@DylanODonnell]

Wow man. Hectic !

[@bassangler73]

@DylanODonnell but, we love it! You guys send summer back up here, it's cold!!!! Lol

[@keithhanssen7413]

Ooooh, that blue one is fabulous. BTW, something similar happened to me with an old lady falling off an electric bike. Yeah, grabbing the most logical place (the handles) will lead to big surprises. Thankfully I didn’t send it in her direction.

[@DylanODonnell]

yeh that would've been manslaughter hah

[@SvenHild]

Definitely scary experience for me alone on a mountain in the US (not my home country) to shoot the Atlas Comet last year. Not knowing if the parking lot gets locked. Can totally relate! But the shot was my best in 2024 for sure.

[@DylanODonnell]

The things people don’t realize !

[@Plex1234]

Great stuff Dylan (minus the attempted bike manslaughter)! On a serious note, what app did you use to overlay the Astro objects on your smart phone camera live view ?

[@DylanODonnell]

SkyGuide for iOS :)

[@terrance_huang]

I tent to love these lightweight mounts more and more. I can set one up whenever I want to, instead of some perfect conditions for the heavy ones.

[@stefanschneider3681]

Love my Star Adventurer GTi, erfect with camera and lenses, perfect with my all new Askar 71F. And sometimes I go crazy and even put my 6‘‘ SCT on top … I can take it anywhere my car is taking me, like the beautiful Appenzell region here in Eastern Switzerland or when we go south down to the Ticino region. But my wife wouldn’t allow me to carry it along when we travel by plane, that’s a bummer, but hey, what can you do 🫣🤣😍?! So I might have get one of those really small rotators as well some day that I can sneak in my carry-along luggage without her noticing 😉🤪🤣!

[@joshmccollumastrophotography]

10:47 couldn't believe I was hearing Starlight! Such a fantastic song

[@michaelw6173]

Well Done. Comet is hidden in Lismore's LP Bubble, which is a bummer. Did you survive that storm yesterday morning, it was spectacular as it went over?

[@DylanODonnell]

Brutal huh! Yeh trees down everywhere.

[@highspeedboom]

Very impressive work, thanks for showing us 😊

[@DylanODonnell]

🥇

[@JarrodMcKitterick]

Was hoping to see that tail in the northern hemisphere. Great pic!

[@joeshmoe7967]

No luck such, in Western Canada

[@JemCruz]

Watch out! Berserker Dylan rampaging under the bright comet atlas!

[@wesleydonnelly2141]

Awesome shots Dylan! I prefer the natural coloured version too, it's gorgeous! Mate I was giggling listening to and imagining you almost killing that poor drunken fella with his outa control electric bike! 😱😂😂 Just a side note, I imaged Mars recently but with only 8" aperture it wasn't anything special. I imagine your 14" behemoth will get you some incredible surface and atmospheric detail of the red Planet! Thanks as always for the ace content my friend! Clear Skies from Wes, Liverpool, England.

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehe thx Wes!

[@LogansAstro]

Great capture. Hope you were careful when you cycled through the images. Was there image one that really jumped out and hit you in the face?🤣

[@simontregear2365]

Great photo.

[@Wheeljack678]

Sometimes, less is truly more. In 2024, I had dozens of hours of integrated DSO work. My favorite image from last year? A single 4 second exposure of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) at 70mm with a 70-200mm lens on a stationary tripod from my parents balcony. Really liked your mini astro-vlog and the story around it, maybe even do more of those if you have the opportunity to do so?

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks I will!

[@MrGp3po]

As astronomy lovers, we are a select group of people that actually look up for long periods of time. The more you look; the more you learn; the more you enjoy.

[@brodymk45]

Nice image Dylan, Unfortunately I live in the North so I’m not seeing this comet, hopefully we will get one. Also funny/sad story lol.

[@DylanODonnell]

yeh I think it's your turn now!

[@johnathanedwards8706]

I heard you mention in one of your recent videos how bad the seeing/transparency has been. I have been quite frustrated with my views of Jupiter this year also, but I am wondering if it could be the telescope. Let me explain. I had a Meade 12" SCT that was optically near perfect many years ago that I sold when I got into AP. Then last year I missed visual astronomy so much that I bought the exact same brand and size of telescope. The optics are either not close to the quality of my first SCT or the seeing really is that bad. When I sold the first SCT, I literally did not know that the quality of the optics could vary so much in the same telescope. Am I losing my mind and or vision or is this just a small part of the meaningless of life and our inevitable demise? Thank you.

[@MarcosJPinto]

I'm still dealing with constant cloud cover here in Southeastern Brazil. Haven't had a chance to photograph anything lately. I think I will change to cloud photography, maybe this way I'll make the clouds go away. Any books on cloud photography? :o)

[@the_astr0bits]

I need stitches from laughing, I'm sure that poor guy riding did too 😂

[@DylanODonnell]

Hahahah

[@bofblog]

Nice image, we up here didn't get the chance..pity the Comets nucleus started to break up and started to fade would have been brighter

[@roderickwho1983]

Bloody hell !! Sounds like a rich, full night :-O

[@AsKyOdA]

Cannot wait to see your Mars shots !!

[@nightwaves3203]

Thought I read some place maybe that comet has two areas ejecting material forming the tail. Maybe since the viewpoint is so popular a cap or blinders could be put on that bright light in town.

[@DylanODonnell]

That would be nice !

[@Ben-un8bu]

Do you recommend any antivirus software that doesn’t restrict Astro processing?

[@DylanODonnell]

A Mac :)

[@Ben-un8bu]

@ had one, just built a PC. Do you recommend any screens apart from your Apple one? 😅

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Dylan.

[@retiche]

Bud, I can't help myself: are you in the annals thing?!?🤪 Anyway, nice shot you've got there!

[@DylanODonnell]

Haha yessir that’s me! Would you like a selfie and an autograph?? 😂

[@retiche]

@ on my own annals? 🤣

[@bigguix]

that outro. yep !

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

At 53° North I've got no chance but I did look on the day it was supposed to be the highest above the horizon, but the sky was too bright. Personally I prefer the image with the natural colours but they're both great.

[@dingdong1009]

Story from last night - My First experience at outreach... I'd been posting images since Saturday and my neighbours were saying they couldn't see it, where is it, we looked and looked but it must have gone past bla bla bla... I said to them if its clear tomorrow night come over and i'll show and you can say you've seen it. Well they rocked up about ten past eight and I'd already been set up trying to find it with the DSLR. Where is it? What time will we see it? What if its not there? How long will we be able to see it for. It was good for me to be able to explain to them how I go about finding it and then framing it and then start imaging it which I was doing in real time as they watched and listened. When I first "acquired" it, I showed them the image and they looked at the sky and were like I can't see it, Where is it, Oh bugger we won't see it. Just let it get a little darker wait wait wait wwwaaaiiittt... BOOM!! OMG OMG OMG WOW LOOK AT THAT WOW OMG That's cool, That's so much better than Halleys Comet Far out cool How neat yeah well thanks for that we'll see later. At least, for a few minutes, I was as excited as they were and as I was on Saturday night - Cloudy tonight - The end

[@jasonnewton1998]

the highly suggestive display of cameras and lenses is too funny. Always catching something in the OPs.

[@mark2220]

Been meaning to ask for a while, what in the world is that animated photo frame behind you? Edit: now that ive actually watched the video. What a great shot, that ebike story is exactly the same stupid shit that would happen to me 😂

[@DylanODonnell]

Haha thanks. It’s a Divoom 64x64 pixel screen .. I love it !

[@mark2220]

​@@DylanODonnellty!

[@GrouchoDuke]

Shoutout to Nebulosity! Craig has done a ton for this hobby. We all owe him big thanks.

[@DylanODonnell]

I don’t use it much these days but I legit still really like it! I mean the dude invented phd! Legend.

[@GrouchoDuke]

@@DylanODonnell Totally legend.

[@bronco_fv]

Stay away from Tesla bikes 😂

[@DylanODonnell]

Elon! *shakes fist*

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Too funny! P.s. lose the camera strap when on the MSM (or at least wrap it around the tripod head), the flapping around can potentially affect sharpness.

[@DylanODonnell]

I thought that would affects someone’s OCD! I get it.

[@jez4491]

You had me at, "almost just killed a kid" 😀

[@DylanODonnell]

Haha pretty sure YT is suppressing this video because of that sentence 😂

[@bartholomule]

Drunk e-bike guy could have crashed and sent your camera over the cliff. Then there'd be a fight with possibly more than two hits to the face. I'm imagining some crazy and incompetent version of Thunderdome.

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehe close call

[@Thomas-g2h9l]

The question is: last time the comet was there, was there as well a drunk neandertal doing bicycle by night?

[@richhudnut5110]

Lucky southern sky grab... My last was Neowise "Covid" comet, and no electric bikes

[@stefanschneider3681]

Man, Neowise 😍! What a treat that was! I had just gotten into astrophotography a year ago and than this! Still love to go back to these pictures. One even made it into our local newspaper 😅 (Neowise over Constance, shot over the border from Switzerland into Germany)

[@frank77_77]

Alcohol + darkness + eBike + "helpful" astrophotographer. What could possibly go wrong?

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehehe

[@spookysandwich1355]

we north folk may have missed the comet BUT..... we do have Polaris 🤣😂

[@DylanODonnell]

Dammit !

[@l0nemonk100]

Yep, I knew it was a Modelo story. Good shot though.

[@starastronomer]

🔭👏

[@johngiromini5745]

Oh man; that is an outstanding photo, Dylan! I have tried for 3 days to catch that comet and just not able to find it in the sunlight. You can watch the the comet go behind the sun on the SOHO Movie Theater, using Image c3, Resolution 512, and Dates 1-13-2025 and 1-14-2025. It is quite amazing.

[@chardies3872]

Lovely stuff, I hope that bike was unharmed though...

[@MrGp3po]

Driving drunk at night? Thanks for punishing him. 😅

[@Hovado_Lesni]

Im here to beat the algorithm!

[@DylanODonnell]

🫡

[@gregmac8268]

For the greater good

[@darrellknight1697]

sure, there is a law allowing the killing of at least 1 kid in the pursuit of astrophotography!

[@darrellknight1697]

theirs another law for exposing yourself in car parks at night, but think that's ones not legal 🤪

[@DylanODonnell]

Sounds legit 😂

[@nivedkrishna4816]

It's gone

[@privateprivate8244]

See what happens to those that dare disturb an imaging session e-bike to the face. Luckily his polar alignment was not disturbed would have resulted in full police response.

[@DylanODonnell]

hehehe

[@onewhostudies6856]

Too bad about the light pollution. That would really irk me.

[@DylanODonnell]

Yep! Straight over the town 🥲

[@devildivolocomuerte6313]

Nice video as usual, BUT since youtube translates your voice with an AI that goes through your voice in an absurd way: not your tone, sometimes a woman's voice, many approximations and mistakes that make lose all the meaning and subtlety of your explanations. Nightmare 😭 Maybe you did that choice, maybe not, but my advice, if I can say one, is to disable this fu%*/!ing AI option on your channel settings. Many thanks