C/2020 F3 or Comet Neowise is classified as a long period comet and was discovered on March 27, 2020. At that time, it was located 160 million miles away from Earth.
By July 2020, it was bright enough to be visible to the naked eye and one of the brightest comets since 1997. It will be visible for most of July and up until approximately July, 23rd.
Visible on the Northwestern horizon, the comet will slowly get higher and smaller as you can see from the photos I took, taken just a couple days apart.
My intention was to photograph it earlier in July but I didn’t get out until the 19th. I wasn’t sure what my photos would look like and pulled over on the side of the highway, at 1:00 a.m., set up the tripod and took a few shots. Unfortunately I pulled over on the side of the road and got the hydro lines! I was more concerned about what sort of creature was going to come out of the ditch to see what I was doing. And I never thought about the dog at the nearby farm!
I like this photograph because off to the right you can see the TLA West elevator in the distance.
I wanted to head out the next night and well, it rained and was cloudy. I figured yesterday it was to late and it would be to small and hard to find in the sky. Well it was but you can spot it if you look hard enough. And it was easier to find when you were in the dark and away from any yard lights. When I finally did spot it I wasn’t sure if I would be able to capture it correctly or that it would be bright enough.
While I wasn’t happy with the first photo, it is surely better than my second attempt. That being said, the stars the last two times I’ve been out are something else. Time to get myself out for some abandoned night shooting.
Comet Neowise will disappear in the next couple days and will not be visible again for another 6,800 years.
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 