Comet Neowise is an amazing sight. Visually, it is the best comet since Hale-Bopp.
Its nucleus and tail can be seen with the naked eye but you will need a dark location and a clear, unobstructed NW sky, averted vision also helps (looking out of the side of your eye).
Comet Neowise is currently to the lower right of the stars at the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl (the “pointer” stars because these stars point to the North Star). The best time to see the comet is between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. before it gets too low. The tail fills the field of 7×50 binoculars. The moon is new on Monday (July 20) so its reflected light will start to interfere with the comet by Tuesday.
Below are some of the photos I took on Friday night (July 17).
[Click on the photo to enlarge it.]
All photos were taken at the George Landis Arboretum in Esperence. Since these photos are time exposures the stars and the comet’s nucleus show trailing.
Enjoy,
Richard Monda
Department of Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Comet Neowise
Comet Neowise showing ion tail (straight, slightly bluish tail) and dust tail (curving tail). To the lower left of the comet is a meteor trail and to the left of the comet is a satellite trail. (The comet’s tails can also be seen somewhat fainter in Photo 1.)
Comet Neowise with a trail from the International Space Station. (If you zoom in on the left side of the trail you can see some of the solar panels on the ISS or see photo 3b.) Faint, greenish streaks in the image such as the one in the comet’s tail are fireflies.
Comet Neowise with ISS enlarged (inset)
After the comet got low I turned the camera around and photographed the Sagittarius region showing the nucleus of the Milky Way. The bright “star” is Jupiter and the “star” to the left of Jupiter is Saturn. The center of MW is near the star that makes the spout of the Sagittarius teapot asterism (star pattern). See photo 4b for annotation.
Photo 4a with annotation.
Published: Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:20:55 +0000 by d.gardner