Comet Neowise 2020! [August Hubble photo update]

[aspacecephalopod]

44 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

Changed our settings and got some beautiful shots last night. We are thinking about heading out of town again with the better settings

 

Nice! What camera

Great shot! And thanks. It's a Canon 6D, with a 300mm F/4 prime tele lens.

[Nightside]

Yay, saw it last night, finally.

Had to wait until it peaked behind the neighbors pine tree.

I used the Sky Guide app to find where it should be and looked with binoculars, but could then pick it out unaided after that.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, aspacecephalopod said:

Great shot! And thanks. It's a Canon 6D, with a 300mm F/4 prime tele lens.

Heh similar to ours. real credit goes to my relative with the gear. He has been getting all the great shots

[Guest]

Aw man Clouds moved in for tonight. Going to have to wait for tomorrow.

[tater]

Tried again tonight. what, NM is supposed to have clear skies. Grrr.

[Guest]

Getting ready to head out now! Going to remember my bugspray this time 

[StrandedonEarth]

Yup. Clear night and the sun has set, and I’m not asleep yet. I may actually finally spot the bleedin thing tonight 

[Brotoro]

My nemesis tonight was WIND. We had thunderstorms early, but the sky started clearing up afterward...but the wind continued. So my shots were jiggly jiggly. 

The comet was by Talitha and Talitha Australis (iota and kappa UMa... one of the Great Bear's paws), at the bottom of the photo.

I tried for more tail with 30-second exposures...but sooo much jiggle. And in the picture below, I increased the color saturation to see if that was an ion tail on the left, and indeed it looks bluer than the other tail.

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Brotoro

[tater]

From nearby in Albuquerque:

 

 

 

[StrandedonEarth]

Well, last night was a pretty much a bust for me, at least as far as the comet went. Finally had clear skies, so I dragged out my cheap POS telescope (I know, binocs are better, but I don't have any). While waiting for the sky to get fully dark, I sighted in on Jupiter and was able to make out the line of pinpricks made by her moons. Next I zeroed in on Saturn, which looked like an oblong smear.

I was using the "Night Sky" app to show me where to look for Neowise, and it alerted me that the ISS was starting a pass, but not where. Looking all over the place I finally saw a moving light, heading almost straight north, which didn't seem right to me. It wasn't as bright as I remembered either. Turning around, I saw the unmistakable moving Venus-bright ISS rising from the west, passing pretty much right overhead. The satellite I saw just before that was apparently a Starlink, according to the app.

It finally started to get fully dark at 10:30, but I still couldn't see it. It doesn't help that I'm looking towards a line of lights on the townhouses in my complex, also blocking  my view of the horizon. Oh, how I wished someone would crash into the power pole outside the complex and knock out the power, as happens once or twice a year. Scanning with the scope was futile without knowing exactly where to point it; I didn't happen across it.

Finally I gave up, put the scope away, and took a short five-minute drive to the edge of town, trying to get away from the worst of the light pollution (probably should have gone farther). It was nearing eleven when I was finally able to make out a faint smudge in the area it should have been, so that must have been it. Coming home, and looking in the same spot (raising my arm to block the lights in my face) I could just make out the same smudge. It's possible that earlier it was hidden by a small smear of high cloud, which was hanging out in that area. But by that time I was starting to turn into a pumpkin, so I couldn't be bothered to pull out the scope again.

So the comet was rather anti-climatic, but at least I saw some other stuff!

[Scotius]

Do you know the trick to see dim object used by amateur astronomers? Don't look straight at the spot you think object is - look a little to the side. Human peripheral vision is better at seeing light-dark contrast than the focused vision. Using this method i was able to spot the comet even when i was unable to see it without binoculars. It was nothing more than a slightly brighter smudge, but at least i knew it was visible and where to aim my binoculars.

[StrandedonEarth]

11 minutes ago, Scotius said:

Do you know the trick to see dim object used by amateur astronomers? Don't look straight at the spot you think object is - look a little to the side. Human peripheral vision is better at seeing light-dark contrast than the focused vision. Using this method i was able to spot the comet even when i was unable to see it without binoculars. It was nothing more than a slightly brighter smudge, but at least i knew it was visible and where to aim my binoculars.

Yeah, I was doing that, that's how I was able to see it at all. I believe that effect is related to the "blind spot" each eye has at the center where the optic nerve leaves the eyeball, which is not otherwise noticeable. But I could be wrong about that.

I first became aware of that effect after turning off an old CRT TV in a dark room. I could peripherally see a  residual white dot in the center of the screen, which disappeared when I looked at it.

Edited July 19, 2020 by StrandedonEarth

[Guest]

Like @Brotoro we tried a 30 second exposure with similar results. But I edited it to my best skills and it's kinda better. But we got the ion tail in the photo. Comparison of edited vs raw. We had no storms in the past few days, but our best guess was with the crowds at the site and/or the gravel ground and/or the low winds

Edited July 19, 2020 by Guest

[NSEP]

After days of cloud coverage i finally saw it on July 17th, unfortunately i am late due to the weather and it was very faint. I really had to adjust my eyes a bit. Here is a long exposure (around 25 seconds) photograph of it.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

(I know, binocs are better, but I don't have any).

The ones I use are about $25 at walmart. If you have the cash I totally recommenced getting some. But if you want to go pro (unlike me,) you could get a really great set for $1,700.

[StrandedonEarth]

55 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

The ones I use are about $25 at walmart.

I've managed to avoid walmart for awhile now, which means Costco has been getting our money instead...

[StrandedonEarth]

 

[klesh]

lol, dont give him any ideas. 

[Barzon]

[kedrednael]

I saw the comet on the 11th of July with my brother while we were In old Zealand, Netherlands. Photographed with my parents camera, the Sony DSC-HX60.


We also saw a lot of other stars, the milkeyway, some starlink satellites, a meteorite, Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and Mars. It was a really good night. Except that we didn't bring our own cameras...

Zoomed in Neowise. The small HX60 has 30x zoom. This is 10 photo's stacked together.

[Guest]

Well my time with the comet is gone. Clouds have rolled in for the rest of July. Oh well we got like 8 nights of viewing! I should be grateful . You don't this kind of stuff that much in the northern hemisphere

[Guest]

After finally being off twitter mostly for 2 weeks, I am going to show some awesome tweets I found of the comet

 

 

[Guest]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kerbiloid]

So, now they not just create SpaceX to advertise KSP, but also launch comets as 1.10.0 promo action...

What's next? When can we expect green Jupiter?

[Guest]

This one made me chuckle