NEOWISE MOVES INTO CIRCUMPOLAR REGION OF SKY

Location:  Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 15, 2020 2230-2310hrs

Weather:  Gusty winds from the NW, very cool, jacket weather, 13C, 61% humidity, party cloudy around the horizon, but mostly clear through rest of sky.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, 20x80 binoculars.

Attendance:  Brandon, Ed from his place, and Myself.

Objective:  To view and image Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise, which as moved into the evening sky and is now circumpolar.

Report:

• Weather forecast was calling for mostly cloudy skies.  We have had almost a month straight of foggy/cloudy weather, at night, with very few, short breaks, in places.  This has made viewing and imaging this spectacular comet very difficult up to now.  Surprisingly, according to Ed, a few hours before dark, a cool, north west wind blew through.  This cleared out what was going to be another cloudy/foggy night.
• Went out around 2230 hrs to look for comet, which was supposed to be in the NNW sky.  After a short, naked eye scan of the low northern sky, Comet Neowise popped out easily, under the Big Dipper with it's 2 degree tail pointing in the approx. 1:30 position.  This tail direction was very different from the morning viewing of the comet on July 10, 2020, where the tail was pointing almost straight up in the 12:00 direction.  Nucleus is very bright, while the tail is much dimmmer, but very see-able.  Wasn't completely dark until almost 2300 hrs.  Comet was spectacular in binoculars!  It took up at least a half of the field of view!  Very bright central region, with striations of brightness through the tail.  Naked eye, the darker the sky got, around 2300hrs, the comet became very easy to see, even in all the light pollution from the City.  A truly wonderful thing to see!

Single shot, taken at 2238 hrs, 4 sec, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 800.

Saint John River, Ocean Steel and the NB Museum on Douglas Ave seen in the foreground.  Single shot, taken at 2232 hrs, 3 sec, f/5.6, 55mm, ISO 800.

•  Saturn and Venus were very bright, close together and low in the southern sky during this time.

Single shot, image taken at 2040 hrs, 4 sec, f/5.6, 130mm, ISO 800.

•  No satellites or shooting stars were seen.

COMET NEOWISE F3

Location:  Saint John to Petersville Hill on Hwy 7, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 10, 2020 0245-0530 hrs

Weather:  Foggy most all the way from Saint John to Petersville Hill, which is about halfway between Saint John and Fredericton, NB on Hwy 7.  Fog seemed to thicken and thin on the way to Petersville Hill.  Temperature was 13C with 91% humidity, and no wind or breeze of any kind.  No movement of the air, made for perfect foggy conditions.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly and David McCashion.

Equipment:  Ed brought his 15x70 and camera.  I used my Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55 and 75-300mm lenses.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Objective:  To view and image a bright, naked eye comet, which was supposed to be visible low on the eastern horizon, just before first light.

Report:  

•  There has been many sightings around the world of this comet for about the last week. However, the weather has been cloudy here in Saint John ever since the comet first started becoming visible in the morning sky.  Here is an image from Tuesday, July 7, 2020 from my first attempt to view this comet.  The mostly cloudy sky started to break up just before first light, but not enough to see the comet.

• 0245 hrs on July 10, 2020 weather was foggy in Saint John so Ed and I met up and headed out to Petersville Hill after looking at the online weather forecast.  It was showing cloudy towards Sussex, so we thought our best chance of seeing the comet was to head inland towards Fredericton.
• 0400 hrs, once at Petersville Hill, we got out of the car and had no trouble seeing the comet, which was surprisingly high above the eastern horizon, and about 20 degrees to the left of a very bright Venus.  The comet had to contend with a 75% illuminated, gibbous Moon also, which was high in the south eastern sky very near to a very bright Mars. (More on Mars below)

Single shot, 1/80 second, ISO 100, 300mm taken at 0442 hrs.

• Comet's tail was approximately 3 degrees long, and is the first thing we noticed, naked eye.  It appeared, out of the corner of my eye, as a line in the sky, going straight up and down and was the first thing that caught our eye, below Capella and Menkalinan.  

Single shot, 8 sec, ISO 6400, f/5.4, 18mm, image cropped and enhanced.  Star magnitudes are included to show brightness of comet.  It was approximately magnitude 2, imo.

• Menkalinan, also known as Beta Aurigae, according to Richard Hinckley Allen, in his book, Star Names Their Lore and Meaning is a 2.1 magnitude star which is "lucid yellow'".  Menkalinan means 'the Shoulder of the Rein-holder.'  Also from Star Names Their Meaning and Lore, Auriga the Charioteer, is a large constellation, stretching northward across the Milky Way from Taurus to Camelopardalis.  Capella, also known as Alpha Aurigae, a 0.3 magnitude, white star.  Capella means 'the Little She-goat'.
• The comet was spectacular in 15x70 binoculars!  A very bright central nucleus, with a wide tail that seemed brighter on one side, with striations.  Took much of the field of view in the binoculars.  Took many images of varying focal lengths and different settings.  Ed and I agree that this is the brightest comet since comet Holmes in 2007.

8 second, ISO 6400, 55mm taken at 0403hrs

8 second, ISO 6400, 300mm, f/5.6, image taken at 0408 hrs.

2 second, ISO 1600, 75mm, f/5.6, image taken at 0437 hrs.

•  A very bright Venus was near Aldebaran in Taurus, along the eastern horizon, about 20 degrees to the right of the comet.  Venus was a very bright -4.4 magnitude, very close to as bright as it gets.

4 second, ISO 1600, 75mm, image taken at 0416 hrs.

• Mars, which was high in the SE sky, is much closer to Earth this year, which happens every other year due to the two planets being on the same side of the Sun in their respective orbits.  This makes it possible to view features on Mars with smaller sized telescopes.  It's disk, in the telescope eyepiece, is going to be very much bigger/easier to see this summer.

• One satellite was seen, passing through binocular field of view, while viewing the comet.  No shooting stars were seen.  On the trip home, fog remained all the way back to Saint John, and stayed cloudy/foggy for most of the morning, well past sun-up.