Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

Comet NEOWISE has been giving much of the northern hemisphere quite a show these past few weeks. Based on the photos I've seen it looked to be bright and quite spectacular--maybe a couple of notches above the spectacle of C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS back in March 2013.

But, alas, I live in East Texas.

This time of year any day can be a combination of clear skies with burning sun and 100+ degree F temperatures, clouds, severe thunderstorms, high humidity, and dusty haze. In general, conditions are not often favorable in the summer for astronomy.

A friend of mine and I have been eagerly searching for NEOWISE this past week, but for various reasons we were unable to see it. The evening of July 18, 2020, however, he and I found a dark spot in my neighborhood with a clear view to the northwest. About half an hour after sunset and shortly after a pass of the International Space Station, we finally saw the comet through binoculars.

It was behind some clouds that were lit up from underneath by the lights of a few nearby prisons.  Several minutes later it was naked-eye visible as a faint smudge pointing up toward the Big Dipper. I took several images with my mobile phone and DSLR:

Samsung Galaxy S10+, 15 seconds at ISO-3200

The above image is a single photo taken with my phone. I'm amazed at what these little devices can do!

The two following images were taken with the Canon EOS Rebel T3 (1100D), stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and have been processed in Photoshop to bring out the details and colors of the scene:

55mm lens, f/7.1, 8x10 seconds @ ISO-3200. The ion tail is faintly visible above the dust tail. Both tails extend, faintly, to the upper-right edge of the image.

55mm lens, f/7.1, 12x15 seconds @ ISO-3200

The first DSLR image is from earlier in the evening. The second was from the last series of shots that had decent data before the comet descended too far into the clouds and haze.

Weather permitting, I intend to try for a few more shots of the comet before it fades away. The latest forecast, though, has a tropical disturbance heading into the Gulf of Mexico, possibly for the Texas coast. So, there's that. Ah, Texas...