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.