Curve ball time! 🙂
I initially had something else planned for this week, however as 2020 has taught us so far… there are no rules. So, this week’s Picture of the Week is literally from this week (POTW is generally running weeks, if not months, behind real time), as I just took these images this morning!
If you’ve been under a rock (or just generally not paying attention to the internet – basically the same thing), you may have missed the fact that our skies here on earth are currently being graced by the C/2020 F3 comet, more commonly referred to as the Neowise comet (because that’s easier to remember for sure than C/2020 F3). Since it started showing up in headlines, my friends and I have all been plotting to capture it, and I finally found success – after two other false starts. The weather here in East Tennessee just hasn’t been cooperating, but this morning it was finally clear, and the Neowise comet put on a nice little show.
Up to this point the comet has only been visible just ahead of sunrise (making it especially painful as here in East Tennessee that means you’ll want to be in position around 4:30AM), however starting tonight, it’ll be visible in the night sky, just after sunset. It is viewable with the naked eye, but I will say, it’s not nearly as apparent as a couple other comets that have in the skies in my lifetime (you sort of have to look beside it to really see it). I don’t know that I would categorize either of these pictures as being great, but that said though, it was a whole lot of fun to shoot and really neat to see.Â
Special thanks to my buddy Ryan for pushing me on an all-nighter last night to see the comet. I was dead set on shooting the Milky Way last night (appears just after sunset this time of year), which mean to see the comet we had to just stay up all night. Good times! We’re definitely not in our 20’s anymore, but it was worth it.
–Dan Thompson
