More Comet Musings

The latest obsession has been trying to photograph comet NEOWISE, specifically, its tail.  I am coming to the conclusion that

• the comet was better positioned last weekend at 4 AM than it has been the last couple of evenings at 10 PM;
• there's a lot of light pollution to the Northwest of us;
• having a camera that didn't need to be jury-rigged to the tripod would help, and;
• that my camera has a built-in interlock that is preventing exposures greater than 1 second and 1600 ISO (or a half-second at 3200 ISO).  

Right now, the comet is too close to the horizon for it to be visible from our backyard.  It took me a while to figure that out.  In about a week and a half it should be closer to the Big Dipper and I won't have to travel six blocks west to the other side of the hill to see it.

NEOWISE, at least from the middle of Eugene, is difficult to see in the post sunset glare.  Until I remembered that my mobile has a built-in compass, I was guessing at the direction the comet is in and how far up in the sky it would be.  For the record, at 10 PM Thursday night, the comet is at a heading of about 328 degrees (or a little over 30 degrees West of North); if you draw a line from the bottom of the Big Dipper (as if it were pouring water) until you hit the 328 degree mark, you'll be (more or less) looking at the comet (about 10 degrees up from the horizon).  Add (roughly) 15 compass degrees for each hour after 10 PM (so, presumably, and I haven't tested this, NEOWISE would be due North at midnight in the Eugene sky).

I don't know if it's just standing around at twilight with a camera and a tripod, or my longish grey hair, or my glasses or what, but my experience so far hunting NEOWISE has included strangers walking up to me (unmasked), or stopping their cars and shouting from the driver's seat, to ask if I can see the comet.  Usually about three per night.  The unmasked folks are mostly keeping social distance.   I think everyone's been seeing really cool photos of a comet with a long tail... which is sort of true, but the pictures either have been processed or it was an extra long exposure (with some kind of tracking to keep things steady).

I'm looking forward trying to photograph NEOWISE some place with less light pollution -- and maybe some shots with the star-trails option on.  I'm hoping this will allow me to get a clearer photo (or more) of the tail.

Saturday, 4:20 AM

Sunday, 4:20 AM

Tuesday, July 14, 19:15

Thursday, July 16, 10:00 PM









Thursday, July 16, 10:00 PM