Look What We Found Tonight!
I knew we had a visitor streaking through our solar system but our skies are rarely good for viewing anything so I had almost completely given up on the possibility of seeing this fast flying visitor. Plus, it was located low near the horizon and we are surrounded by trees so that was also making me lose hope of catching a glimpse of this guy. Sheila and I got lucky with the weather tonight which made it pretty easy to find this visitor in our night sky!
This comet was actually discovered on Sheila's birthday, March 27, 2020, and named Neowise. Comet Neowise is hurtling through our solar system at 17,500 miles per hour and it is about 3.1 miles in size. This comet won't be visiting us again for another 6,800 years so this is a once in a lifetime event. The comet and it's diffusing blue ion and golden sodium tail were clearly visible in our northern sky tonight and, for a change, I was prepared for it and the weather cooperated and my health cooperated and we encountered no skunks, bears or bobcats! (A bear would visit us later in the evening but we encountered no threatening wildlife while we were viewing Comet Neowise.)
Before we even started on dinner, the sky was clear so I pulled out one of my cameras, two lenses and a tripod hoping to catch Neowise in a photo or two. Most astronomers had already been sharing photos they shot of this comet using their telescopes and, quite frankly, I thought these were lousy and disappointing photos for a number of reasons but the main reason is because they were too magnified and cropped. I wanted a wider view so we could see the environment as well as the entire tail of the comet. This meant forgetting about telescopes and using just a simple camera lens mounted on a tripod for stability with one of my Sony cameras.
The sky was looking pretty good at first. There wasn't a cloud in the sky but then the clouds slowly started filling the sky. Within a few short minutes, the sky was completely overcast and it was a dark overcast. It was so dark that I actually wondered if it might rain. At the time, I just figured, "Well... it looks like a typical night in Waterbury" and I was accepting of the increasing possibility that I would not be seeing any stars or comets tonight.
We ate dinner... a couple juicy, tender pork tenderloins wrapped in bacon with some sweet corn on the side... and then I headed back outside to check the sky. It was clearing up!
Now it was time to figure out where this comet was hiding and hope that it was not completely hidden from view by our surrounding trees. I found the Big Dipper and I knew that Neowise would be close to the horizon and a bit to the right toward North located slightly diagonally down from the Big Dipper. Now I needed to find a place where we could view that piece of sky.
First, we tried the most accessible area of our yard at our firepit and outdoor kitchen. There is a break in the trees toward the northwest but we had no luck there. Then we tried deep in our backyard but, no, that was worse for seeing that northwestern horizon. Then we headed out front just outside our bedroom window by the side of the road. This area would provide us with our best chance to see this comet from our property.
I plopped the tripod down with the camera and lens mounted on it, roughly leveled it using my camera's level, pointed it toward the section of the inky blue dusky sky I thought I would find Neowise hiding and then dialed up the exposure until I started to see stars on my little LCD screen. Our eyes had not yet adapted to the darkness since we had just moved to this part of the yard and the sky was still lit by the setting sun. I focused manually on a star, picked a shutter speed I figured would expose the scene correctly (my ISO and aperture were already chosen), and then fired off a test shot... the image popped up on the little LCD screen after the six second exposure... "THERE IT IS!"
As it got a little darker out, I switched lenses to get a slightly more closeup view but not so close that we could no longer see the environment. Now the sky was that inky blue after the colors of sunset dissolve into night.
As our eyes adapted to the dark, more and more stars popped into view. Within a few short minutes, the sky was black and our eyes had adapted to the darkness. We were now able to see Neowise clearly just above the trees with our naked eyes without the help of a very sensitive camera, telescopes, or binoculars. We could now see it there just over the horizon in the northwestern sky. I started shooting more images and refocusing between shots.
Sheila seemed excited by seeing something new in the sky and she stayed looking over my shoulder at each of the images as they popped up on the LCD screen, stating an occasional "WOW!" It is always nice to see some excitement in someone new to astronomy and tonight was no exception.
We were fortunate tonight with the weather. Upon looking at all the photos I shot (which wasn't many for me), many of them were a bit veiled by clouds. It was so dark out there that we didn't even realize that we had a thin cloud cover continuing to move through the area.
It was fun seeing a comet streaking through our solar system and, thankfully, I was ready with a camera in hand too!
This comet was actually discovered on Sheila's birthday, March 27, 2020, and named Neowise. Comet Neowise is hurtling through our solar system at 17,500 miles per hour and it is about 3.1 miles in size. This comet won't be visiting us again for another 6,800 years so this is a once in a lifetime event. The comet and it's diffusing blue ion and golden sodium tail were clearly visible in our northern sky tonight and, for a change, I was prepared for it and the weather cooperated and my health cooperated and we encountered no skunks, bears or bobcats! (A bear would visit us later in the evening but we encountered no threatening wildlife while we were viewing Comet Neowise.)
Before we even started on dinner, the sky was clear so I pulled out one of my cameras, two lenses and a tripod hoping to catch Neowise in a photo or two. Most astronomers had already been sharing photos they shot of this comet using their telescopes and, quite frankly, I thought these were lousy and disappointing photos for a number of reasons but the main reason is because they were too magnified and cropped. I wanted a wider view so we could see the environment as well as the entire tail of the comet. This meant forgetting about telescopes and using just a simple camera lens mounted on a tripod for stability with one of my Sony cameras.
The sky was looking pretty good at first. There wasn't a cloud in the sky but then the clouds slowly started filling the sky. Within a few short minutes, the sky was completely overcast and it was a dark overcast. It was so dark that I actually wondered if it might rain. At the time, I just figured, "Well... it looks like a typical night in Waterbury" and I was accepting of the increasing possibility that I would not be seeing any stars or comets tonight.
We ate dinner... a couple juicy, tender pork tenderloins wrapped in bacon with some sweet corn on the side... and then I headed back outside to check the sky. It was clearing up!
Now it was time to figure out where this comet was hiding and hope that it was not completely hidden from view by our surrounding trees. I found the Big Dipper and I knew that Neowise would be close to the horizon and a bit to the right toward North located slightly diagonally down from the Big Dipper. Now I needed to find a place where we could view that piece of sky.
First, we tried the most accessible area of our yard at our firepit and outdoor kitchen. There is a break in the trees toward the northwest but we had no luck there. Then we tried deep in our backyard but, no, that was worse for seeing that northwestern horizon. Then we headed out front just outside our bedroom window by the side of the road. This area would provide us with our best chance to see this comet from our property.
I plopped the tripod down with the camera and lens mounted on it, roughly leveled it using my camera's level, pointed it toward the section of the inky blue dusky sky I thought I would find Neowise hiding and then dialed up the exposure until I started to see stars on my little LCD screen. Our eyes had not yet adapted to the darkness since we had just moved to this part of the yard and the sky was still lit by the setting sun. I focused manually on a star, picked a shutter speed I figured would expose the scene correctly (my ISO and aperture were already chosen), and then fired off a test shot... the image popped up on the little LCD screen after the six second exposure... "THERE IT IS!"
 |
| Sony a7, Rokinon 85mm, f1.4, 6 seconds, ISO 400 |
As it got a little darker out, I switched lenses to get a slightly more closeup view but not so close that we could no longer see the environment. Now the sky was that inky blue after the colors of sunset dissolve into night.
 |
| Sony a7, Canon FD 135mm f2, 6 seconds, ISO 1600 |
As our eyes adapted to the dark, more and more stars popped into view. Within a few short minutes, the sky was black and our eyes had adapted to the darkness. We were now able to see Neowise clearly just above the trees with our naked eyes without the help of a very sensitive camera, telescopes, or binoculars. We could now see it there just over the horizon in the northwestern sky. I started shooting more images and refocusing between shots.
 |
| Sony a7, Rokinon 85mm, f1.4, 6 seconds, ISO 800 |
Sheila seemed excited by seeing something new in the sky and she stayed looking over my shoulder at each of the images as they popped up on the LCD screen, stating an occasional "WOW!" It is always nice to see some excitement in someone new to astronomy and tonight was no exception.
We were fortunate tonight with the weather. Upon looking at all the photos I shot (which wasn't many for me), many of them were a bit veiled by clouds. It was so dark out there that we didn't even realize that we had a thin cloud cover continuing to move through the area.
It was fun seeing a comet streaking through our solar system and, thankfully, I was ready with a camera in hand too!
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