Comet NEOWISE

Iconic Roy's Cafe Motel Sign, Comet NEOWISE

Comet NEOWISE, visible as a small smudge at right center, passes overhead in the night sky above the iconic Roy's Motel and Cafe in Amboy, California on its once-in-seven-millennia flyby of the inner solar system.

Comet NEOWISE and Minarets, Twilight

Comet NEOWISE materializes in the fading twilight over California's Ritter Range in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in July 2020. The comet was a bright spot for stargazers in a year dimmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. After cloudy conditions the night before that, while making for disappointing comet viewing, led to the best sunset I've seen in the Sierras, the conditions this second evening were almost perfect. Just as a young crescent moon slipped behind the mountains the comet began to appear, the skies so clear and free of light pollution that even the long ion tail was visible before the last of the sun's light was gone.

Comet NEOWISE and Minarets, Twilight (black and white version)

Comet NEOWISE materializes in the fading twilight over California's Ritter Range in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in July 2020. The comet was a bright spot for stargazers in a year dimmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. After cloudy conditions the night before that, while making for disappointing comet viewing, led to the best sunset I've seen in the Sierras, the conditions this second evening were almost perfect. Just as a young crescent moon slipped behind the mountains the comet began to appear, the skies so clear and free of light pollution that even the long ion tail was visible before the last of the sun's light was gone.

Comet NEOWISE, Airglow

This was originally meant to be a time-lapse of the comet dropping from the evening sky behind the mountains, but clouds passing over the Sierra Nevada dashed those plans. I used a technique called stacking with the few unobscured frames to reduce noise and bring out more detail here. The ion tail becomes clear, as does the subtle green airglow in the lower half of frame. The Big Dipper (or The Plough for those across the pond), part of Ursa Major, is visible in the above the comet’s tails.