Comet NEOWISE
The appearance of a comet visible to the naked eye this week came as a surprise to many sky watchers. Comet NEOWISE (named after the NASA space telescope that found it) survived a trip around the sun, unlike most dusty iceballs that make up the core of a comet, and began to glow in the eastern night sky in early July.
I first learned of this comet from a Flickr post, which prompted me to rise early the next morning to view it in the twilight sky. I got some decent photos, but was disappointed at missing any foreground interest. The next morning I got up at 3 and took a chance at seeing the comet rise over something of greater interest than city haze, and was fortunate to pick a spot that had distant enough foreground elements to show up well in a tele lens in dim light. The slopes of Grassy Top have wind sculpted trees that seem to delight in pointing to the comet on this morning.
Comet NEOWISE will be visible in the early mornings for the next week, but for those not liking early mornings it will be visible in the NW sky about 90 minutes after sunset after July 12.
Comet NEOWISE
The appearance of a comet visible to the naked eye this week came as a surprise to many sky watchers. Comet NEOWISE (named after the NASA space telescope that found it) survived a trip around the sun, unlike most dusty iceballs that make up the core of a comet, and began to glow in the eastern night sky in early July.
I first learned of this comet from a Flickr post, which prompted me to rise early the next morning to view it in the twilight sky. I got some decent photos, but was disappointed at missing any foreground interest. The next morning I got up at 3 and took a chance at seeing the comet rise over something of greater interest than city haze, and was fortunate to pick a spot that had distant enough foreground elements to show up well in a tele lens in dim light. The slopes of Grassy Top have wind sculpted trees that seem to delight in pointing to the comet on this morning.
Comet NEOWISE will be visible in the early mornings for the next week, but for those not liking early mornings it will be visible in the NW sky about 90 minutes after sunset after July 12.