Comet NEOWISE 2020

All the images below were taken of comet NEOWISE on thee successive evenings (July 16, 17, and 18) in 2020. They were all taken between 9:00 and 9:30 PM from my driveway in Gold Canyon, AZ, shortly after the comet moved from the morning skies to the eveninng skies.

Below are photographs of comet NEOWISE, taken with my Canon T4i digital camera. On the image below, the comet appears faintly above the center. What is interesting, in particular, is how well the variable light pollution in my NW skies is rendered on the image. The image is a one-second exposure at an ISO of 12800 taken at f/2.8 via a Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens. This lens has a 115 degree field of view for full-format cameras, but its field of view on an APS-C camera, like mine, is only 90 degrees. However, that is large enough to show the differences in sky light pollution between the left edge of the image and the right edge. Obviously, the lights of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area greatly affect the left side, whereas the right side is pointing in a direction that is more sparsely populated. I think it is a good example of capturing a strong contrast in light pollution conditions in a single image.

The image below was taken July 17.

The image below, also taken on July 17, captures the vertical view with same wide angle lens.  Easily seen above the comet is the entire Big Dipper asterism.    

Comet over 3 successive nights in July 2020.

All subsequent photographs were taken with my Canon T4i camera using my Tamron 24 to 200mm zoom lens. 

July 16, 2020

July 17, 2020

July 18, 2020

The comet has a near parabolic orbit. If you missed this perihelion passage, perhaps you can see it on its next one in 6766 years.