Comet spotting

[begreen]

I caught this shot last night with my phone around 11pm, looking NW. The comet is quite faint, in part due to Seattle light pollution. The phone actually saw it better than my eye did.

 

[SpaceBus]

We are hoping to see it this evening or in the morning, I can't remember which is the proper time for our location. My wife follows this stuff religiously.

 

[begreen]

Look starting at around dusk. You will need a spot that has a clear view to the North West. Locate the Big Dipper. It should be below it.

Comet NEOWISE Dazzles at Dusk

Comet NEOWISE is climbing higher in the sky these evenings. Read on to learn how to spot the comet and its stunning tail for as sight you won't forget.

skyandtelescope.org

 

[Dataman]

Been sitting along the road all day and not one Comet Came by.

 

[ABMax24]

We've been trying to spot it for the last few days, but all we seem to get lately is cloud at night. Tonight is not looking good either.

 

[begreen]

Been sitting along the road all day and not one Comet Came by.

Look under the kitchen sink. You may be able to spot Comet there.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Nice shot, Begreen. We’re going to see if it’s high enough over the horizon for us to see tonight or tomorrow. We’re letting the kids stay up late for the event, and the temperatures should be in the low 80’s that late at night.

 

[begreen]

Nice shot, Begreen. We’re going to see if it’s high enough over the horizon for us to see tonight or tomorrow. We’re letting the kids stay up late for the event, and the temperatures should be in the low 80’s that late at night.

Find a high spot with a clear view to the north. (though I suppose that could be a challenge in some parts of Texas where the highest spot is a jackrabbit hill.)

 

[SpaceBus]

We are headed to some blueberry fields on the hills this evening.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Find a high spot with a clear view to the north. (though I suppose that could be a challenge in some parts of Texas where the highest spot is a jackrabbit hill.)

But it’s Texas, so the jackrabbits are big, and their hills are big! (I’ve never seen a jackrabbit hill actually. I have seen a few jackrabbits, though. The first time I saw one, I was driving quite late at night, and it was so big that I actually thought at first that it was a small deer.)

We live in Texas Hill Country, right on the edge of the Edwards Plateau. Our street is a big hill, and we live on the back side of it. The culdesac at the top of our driveway gives a pretty good view, though there are trees. That’s where we usually set up our telescope. There is a higher point of the hill, and if we don’t succeed tonight, I ask the neighbors if we can use their driveway tomorrow night.

@SpaceBus, blueberry fields in Maine sound a lot better than hot asphalt in Texas right about now. I made the mistake this afternoon of stepping out onto our deck barefoot to close our grill, and I burned my feet before I made it back to the door. I had to put them in water in the bathtub.

 

[SpaceBus]

But it’s Texas, so the jackrabbits are big, and their hills are big! (I’ve never seen a jackrabbit hill actually. I have seen a few jackrabbits, though. The first time I saw one, I was driving quite late at night, and it was so big that I actually thought at first that it was a small deer.)

We live in Texas Hill Country, right on the edge of the Edwards Plateau. Our street is a big hill, and we live on the back side of it. The culdesac at the top of our driveway gives a pretty good view, though there are trees. That’s where we usually set up our telescope. There is a higher point of the hill, and if we don’t succeed tonight, I ask the neighbors if we can use their driveway tomorrow night.

@SpaceBus, blueberry fields in Maine sound a lot better than hot asphalt in Texas right about now. I made the mistake this afternoon of stepping out onto our deck barefoot to close our grill, and I burned my feet before I made it back to the door. I had to put them in water in the bathtub.

We are on the south side of a coastal ridge and suffer from no heat problems, but we did just have two weeks of not seeing the horizon or sun due to thick fog. The garden was thankful, but the alpacas and my wife were not.

 

[PaulOinMA]

Really neat picture!

 

[SpaceBus]

We were finally able to see it last night! Had to drive to somewhere with the right elevation, but it was worth it. This comet is the first I've ever seen with my own eyes.

 

[Highbeam]

We’ve been watching it the last couple of nights too. It’s below and a bit north of the Big Dipper. Binoculars help a lot.

Since I’m east of @begreen, the comet is directly over the Seattle light (and smog) pollution so It’s a bit hazy but the ground slopes down to the north so easy viewing from the back patio.

6800 more years till it returns.

 

[begreen]

There have been some amazingly good shots taken by some pros of the comet.
This one at Mont St. Michel is by Thierry Legault


This one by Jasman Lion Mander is of Mount Shasta and Neowise.



In Seattle by Mark Stewart



And if you have a Facebook account you may be able to see this fantastic timelapse over Mt. Hood, OR.

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[DuaeGuttae]

Thanks for posting those pictures, Begreen. We didn’t see the comet last night but will try again tonight. We stayed out a long time, though, because it was clear and comfortable and the two older children were really enjoying finding stars. We also got a great view of Jupiter and three of its moons through our telescope. I think we saw a shadow of a fourth moon on the face of the planet.

One moment that was really fun was when my twelve year old asked, “How do you find Spica?” and the ten year old popped up immediately, “You need to find the Big Dipper, then follow the Arc in Arcturus down to Bootes and over to Spica” (or something like that). It was nice to see and hear them working together on finding stars to identify.

We plan to go out earlier tonight and see how we do with seeing the comet.

 

[tlc1976]

I saw it Thursday and Friday. My phone wouldn’t capture it and my telescope made it too big but I saw it best just with my eyes. After about 11 it got dark enough but I think I’d have been able to see it all night. I don’t even have a view all the way down to the north horizon.

This was nice. First time I’ve seen a comet of this brilliance in my 43 years. This is what I hoped Halley’s Comet would have been in the 80s.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

Wife and I saw it this past Thursday since it finally cleared up and was decently cool for this time of year. We went to Blue Mounds state park about 30 min from Madison, at the top of the hill they've got two large observation towers one facing north and one facing south. The park is far enough away from Madison to where city lights aren't an issue. This is also my go to place when the northern lights are visible from this part of WI. This is the best picture we got of the comet, taken with our new cell phones (it's easiest to look at image full size in a dark room):

 

[begreen]

It's definitely a challenge to shoot this with a longer lens. You can't see anything in the viewfinder or LCD screen so you have to aim by dead reckoning and wait for the results. It took about 3 tries before I finally started seen an image once the shot was over. This is a 30 sec exposure, 200mm @f6.3, iso 1600.

 

[Highbeam]

Whoa, real film? F-stops? Shutter speeds?

I noticed last night that the comet is now pretty much under the Big Dipper.

 

[begreen]

Whoa, real film? F-stops? Shutter speeds?

I noticed last night that the comet is now pretty much under the Big Dipper.

Digital with a Sony A6000.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I never managed to see the comet. We tried for several nights, but it may have been too low on the horizon from our vantage point, and then we had some cloudiness when it would have been higher. I’ve enjoyed the photos, and it was still a good time with the children.

One night we even set up our utility trailer in the front yard with pads and sleeping bags for cushioning, and the kids lay down there with their binoculars. (The ground is not the best option due to fire ants, scorpions, and snakes.) They had planned to sleep out there, but the seven year old decided she didn‘t want to, and soon thereafter the ten and twelve year olds opted for air conditioning instead.

 

[tlc1976]

One thing is your eyes need to be adjusted to the dark. The fastest way to lose that is to look at my phone, then I gotta start all over.