Comet NEOWISE

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Rich Feldman
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Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rich Feldman »

Chose this forum for an ephemeral topic, which will probably attract pictures.

Who else has been watching the comet?
First I heard of it was July 9, and a July 10 morning look failed.
Saturday morning, July 11, was first success. Haven't missed a day since then.
Morning _and_ evening last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, from here at latitude +37.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Richard Hull
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Richard Hull »

Do you have any photos to place here???

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Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rich Feldman »

Guess I could take one, to hold a place here. Would be unspectacular.

Oh, wait.
neo9.jpg
.



That's snipped from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh1_wHd ... u.be&t=281;
let's see if our forum software ill-advisedly spots the URL as Youtube and presents a preview image. Apparently not. Yay!
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Rex Allers
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rex Allers »

Yes. Checked it out last two nights. Best I've seen since the two big ones in mid 90's. Shared it with a couple of neighbors.

Tried to check it out a week or so back in pre-dawn but no luck.

Thursday night tried again but this time in early night just after skies darkening, around 9:30 PM. Success with binoculars. Saw it again Friday. Checked sky before dark and not great. Wild fires here in San Jose with smoke making a noticeable haze. But still Ok for the comet later with binocs.

So yes. It is great to see. Rich and I share about the same light-polluted and smoggy haze skies. I suspect if one was in a really dark area (rare in US now) it might be a naked eye item. Here, naked eye, it is even a bit difficult to spot the big dipper as a guide. But then with binoculars and knowing where to look, the comet is a great rare thing to witness.
Rex Allers
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Richard Hull
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Richard Hull »

A friend who was in the Richmond Astronomical Society back in the 70's when I was president of the group, now lives less than a mile from me, sent these pictures he took from a remote site. Credited to my old pal of many years, Randy Tatum

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Comet neowise1.jpg
Comet neowise.jpg
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Ameen Aydan
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Ameen Aydan »

I went out with the family yesterday far from city lights. I don't have a DSLR so I was limited to a crappy Samsung, but I manged to get the exposure time just right. Here are some low quality photos:
feb7b8cc-3595-4ebe-8b93-8bb75e5c1b5f.JPG
9bd06ef6-5d97-4def-8f62-6af8b1715747.JPG
This was using a 6" reflector and about half a second of exposure. You won't be able to see it with a naked eye or even a telescope unless you go to a dark location since it's too far from the sun at this point. The pictures you see online are a very bad representation of what you'll see IRL

Clear skies,
AA
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Bob Reite
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Bob Reite »

I tried looking for it right at the end of nautical twilight Saturday night. Sky in my area was too hazy, could just make out the big dipper once my eyes had dark adapted. If the forecast looks good for Sunday night, I might drive to a site just north of Ricketts Glen, which has fairly dark skies and an unobstructed horizon to the NW
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rich Feldman »

Evening sky on Saturday was much clearer than previous 3 evenings (which had smoke from distant wildfires).
Successful viewing session, from home street and back yard, was the longest yet of 11 for me.
Found it with binoculars at 9:16. It was visible to naked eye (practiced, adapted, and bespectacled) until I quit at 10:19.
(We are 2 degrees west of standard meridian for our time zone.)
Unfortunately not successful in getting a neighbor couple to see it, while not wanting to share binoculars.

Neowise made a near-perfect equilateral triangle with a pair of 3rd magnitude stars I've gotten to know,
kappa and iota Ursae Majoris, with comet tail serving as a pennant on top of the tent.
neo10.jpg

This snip is from a sky simulation by Stellarium-web.org; near the top are the pointer stars of Big Dipper.
It shows many more stars than were apparent with binoculars, here in town.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
Frank Sanns
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Frank Sanns »

Here is the comet on the evening of July 18th. It is right in the center of the triangle of stars. A unique perspective on only one day in its path.

I am only 3 miles from center city of Pittsburgh so light pollution is a problem.

Camera is a Canon 5D Mark IV. Lens is a Canon 500 mm F/4. Exposure was 1 second at f/4.5 using ISO 800. The lens is too big to use on my star tracker hence the short exposure time. Image stabilization was off.

Twenty images were stacked using Deep Sky Tracker.

Click on the image to see a slightly higher resolution image. Original is too big to post.
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CometNeowisebyFrank Sanns.jpg
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Nathan Marshall
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Nathan Marshall »

Here is a photo I took in Hutchinson, Kansas the evening of July 17th. A few second exposure at 70mm focal length on a Nikon Z6. It's noisier than I'd like after resetting the black point due to some light pollution and the setting sun. Hopefully I can get out again in the coming days to get multiple photos for a stack.
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rich Feldman »

Very nice pics there.
Monday was the first day in 10 that I didn't see the comet at all.
Spent an hour under a moving layer of clouds, attending with binoculars to the known location of comet
in case a thin spot in the clouds went that way. Couple of times I thought a local glow was showing through, but not enough to be convincing.

Anybody know if the electronic compass in iPhone and similar devices has an accuracy spec?
I've been using my trusty mirror compass to know which azimuth to look at, scanning up from horizontal instead of down from Big Dipper.
20200720_230406.jpg
Old timers may recognize a vernier scale (my own design) to assist in interpolation between the every-2-degree marks on analog scale,
especially since the luminous index mark is about as wide as the scale pitch.
Here showing that the dial is turned to 1/2 degree above an even number. Specifically 142-1/2, opposite from 322-1/2.
(Original application was daytime trail mapping, with red arrow matched to white end of magnetic needle instead of having to add or subtract 180.)
20200720_224434.jpg
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Bob Reite
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Bob Reite »

I've been clouded out the last two nights. Tonight might be a chance if the scattered clouds move out of the way by the end of nautical twilight here.
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Rich Feldman »

After clouds Monday and Tuesday, it was nice to see the comet again Wednesday. Followed it later than ever before, until 10:55 pm.

First pictures by me, after more than an hour of tinkering, while the comet sank into the mucky layer.
These were 8 second exposures, f/2.6, ISO 112, with slightly different pointing of camera.
There are a ton of colorful hot pixels, some real stars, and comet barely above & to right of roof gable.
The hot pixels are a familar problem that developed in this 20-year-old Nikon Coolpix 950 camera, last used in 2011.
Might be fun to try stacking software on a series of images like these. Or subtract an image taken in total darkness.
DSCN1202.JPG
DSCN1203.JPG
.
Here's the sad story.
My point-and-shoot camera (Coolpix 550) since about 2011 can't do the necessary exposure, nor can the 8-month-old starter smartphone.
Couldn't find my starter DSLR, a Canon EOS something from the generation before they had a video mode.
Dug out my first ever digital camera, which came with swiveling lens unit, super closeup macro ability, 2 whole megapixels, a 16 megabyte Compact Flash memory, and serial port for uploading (barely pre-USB).
It runs on 4 AA cells and loads them heavily (600 - 700 mA), so back in y2k I bought some sets of 4 NiMH cells and a sort of smart charger.
Tonight after seeing the comet with eyes, I found old camera but no sets of AA's with enough juice to boot it up, even brand new alkalines, and old NiMH after 15 minutes of rapid charging.
Switched to Plan B, an long-idle DC adapter plug for the camera, that connects by alligator clips to an external battery pack.
For tomorrow: find the DSLR and charge its proprietary battery pack for the first time in about 2 years. Or at least re-learn how to set the ISO in ancient camera.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Bob Reite
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by Bob Reite »

I finally got to see it. Haze was not so bad tonight, no clouds and after letting my eyes dark adapt for a half hour I was able to see it through binoculars no problem. It's barely a naked eye object at this point.
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
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