2020 July 17 ~ Comet Neowise (C/2020 F3)
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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
between 23.10 and 23.13 EDT
* Altitude of comet's head at time of exposures: ~12°
* Temperature 17° C.
* Total exposure time: 1.25 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
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Description:
This comet has been touted as the brightest in a generation. The last comet that I can remember being this bright was Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, which was undoubtedly the best comet that i will have seen in my lifetime.
This visitor to the inner solar system was discovered on March 20 this year by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope (hence the name of the comet). It reached naked eye visibility this month, and I finally got into a dark sky - with no Moon in the sky to wash out the fainter outer reaches of the tail - on July 17.
In this view we see the bright head of the comet at the left side, with the broad yellowish dust tail fanning out to the right, and the fainter, narrow bluish plasma or ion tail bordering the dust tail at the top.
At the time of this photo, Comet Neowise was 78 million km (0.52 astronomical units ("AU") - the distance from Earth to the Sun) from the Sun, and 109 million km (0.73 AU) from Earth, and shone at a brightness of third magnitude, with a 10 degree tail.
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Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Five stacked frames; each frame:
660 mm focal length
ISO 3200; 15 sec. exposure at f/5.2; unguided
With long exposure noise reduction
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast)
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2020 July 17 ~ Comet Neowise (C/2020 F3)
***************************************************************************
Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
between 23.10 and 23.13 EDT
* Altitude of comet's head at time of exposures: ~12°
* Temperature 17° C.
* Total exposure time: 1.25 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
___________________________________________
Description:
This comet has been touted as the brightest in a generation. The last comet that I can remember being this bright was Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, which was undoubtedly the best comet that i will have seen in my lifetime.
This visitor to the inner solar system was discovered on March 20 this year by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope (hence the name of the comet). It reached naked eye visibility this month, and I finally got into a dark sky - with no Moon in the sky to wash out the fainter outer reaches of the tail - on July 17.
In this view we see the bright head of the comet at the left side, with the broad yellowish dust tail fanning out to the right, and the fainter, narrow bluish plasma or ion tail bordering the dust tail at the top.
At the time of this photo, Comet Neowise was 78 million km (0.52 astronomical units ("AU") - the distance from Earth to the Sun) from the Sun, and 109 million km (0.73 AU) from Earth, and shone at a brightness of third magnitude, with a 10 degree tail.
___________________________________________
Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Five stacked frames; each frame:
660 mm focal length
ISO 3200; 15 sec. exposure at f/5.2; unguided
With long exposure noise reduction
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast)
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