by Mark Cox
Comet NEOWISE (Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)) was discovered in late March. Over the last few weeks it has brightened and became one of the few naked-eye comets of the 21st Century. As the comet has already been photographed behind many famous sites and cities around the globe I thought I would try to capture it from the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. The image below and the at the top of the page are my attempts. The bright lights you can see at the bottom of the shot are of Wellington and Taunton.
For those interested in camera settings for this shot they were:
Nikon D750. 15s exposure @ F4.0 ISO3200.
To spot the Comet look up into the night sky after sunset in a North / North West direction just under the Plough. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) also spotted the comet and took this photo of it. The Astronauts described Comet Neowise as “the brightest one over the last 7 years. Its tail is quite clearly visible from the space station!” The comet reached its closest distance from Earth on 23 July (though it will still be about 64 million miles (103 million km) away). Even though Neowise will be at a distance 400 times farther than the moon, you should still be able to see it without having to rely on binoculars or a telescope, although they might help.
More information on Comet NEOWISE can be found here.
