Comet Neowise now in the Evening Sky

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Category: Astronomical Events

Comet Neowise 2020 07 15What a difference several days make.  Comet Neowise can now be seen in the northwest evening sky an hour or so after sunset.  It is low to the horizon, but each night it will climb about 2 degrees higher.  On the night of July 15th Dr. Jeff Kretsch took the ajoining photo and wrote, "I had a decent site from a hill overlooking the northwest, and about as good of conditions for summertime as I could hope for. Others saw it before I did and pointed out where to find it. Once I did it stood out quite well in binoculars, and I could just detect it visually. It remained visible from about 9:40 PM when we first saw it until around 10:00 PM when it sank into the haze. It was higher than I expected it would be. It gains 2 degrees a night, but the weather forecasts are deteriorating after tonight."

Dr. Bob Murphy of Timonium, MD is a retired astronomer who has turned to scientific and astronomical photography.  You can find his photographs at: https://www.scientiaphoto.com/Aeronautics-Space/Astrophotography-2018/

Here is his story about taking photos of the comet, starting in when the comet was visible in the early morning and as it moved to the evening sky he "...failed to see it last night at the sane hour of 8:45PM... Finally! Some success at capturing the comet. What a gorgeous sight! This is my third night of shooting. Some of you have seen my earlier struggles, while others have been spared the inferior photographs, and technical grumblings."

Comet Neowise 2020 07 15 Scientia[At right is his photograph of the comet on the evening of 14 July 2020] 

"This has to count as an artistic rendering rather than a mere photograph. Too much has been done to make it work. Maybe if I had the eyes of a twenty-something and the knowledge of what it is supposed to look like of a seventy-something I could have seen it like this. Oh! Wait. That’s what happened - sort of."

"It was taken from the street directly in front of our house. The comet was impossible to see with the naked eye, but I had pinned down the exact direction thanks to a fortuitous capture of the comet as I shut down in despair the night before. I’d head out into the country for darker skies if I thought I could actually find it, and if I thought I’d have another clear night,... Last night was perfect. I was almost completely clear until five minutes after this shot was taken. And by then the comet was getting awfully low in the sky. [Technical info: Nikon D850 with 85 mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.8, ISO 800, & 1 second. Taken on July 14, 2020.]"