Sunday, July 19, 2020

Photos of the Day: Comet NEOWISE After Dusk...

A photo I took of comet NEOWISE from the city of Diamond Bar in California...on the night of July 18, 2020.

Good morning, everyone! Just thought I'd share these photos that I took of comet NEOWISE from Summitridge Park in Diamond Bar, California yesterday. These four pics were taken between 9:28 PM and 10:07 PM—with sunset being around 8:01 PM last night. NEOWISE is pretty high up in the sky now...to the point where you can see it below the constellation Big Dipper as opposed to near the horizon (as seen in the images I took on July 10).

By this Wednesday, July 22 (when NEOWISE makes its closet approach to Earth at 64.3 million miles, or 103.5 million kilometers), the comet should be even closer to the Big Dipper. However, it's best that you definitely travel outside the city to catch a glimpse of this celestial object (with a telescope or binoculars) before it disappears for good early next month (NEOWISE won't return to our inner solar system again for another 6,800 years). I had to use Photoshop to adjust the contrast on these pics since the sky was hazy and also brightened by the light pollution of Los Angeles County.

Anyways, here are the general settings that I used last night. I'll see if I drive far this Wednesday to take some final photos of comet NEOWISE with my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera... Carry on!

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 800 and 1600
F-stop: f/4.5 to 5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 to 8 seconds (try to stick with 2.5 seconds, unless you like star trails)
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Another photo I took of comet NEOWISE from the city of Diamond Bar in California...on the night of July 18, 2020.

Another photo I took of comet NEOWISE from the city of Diamond Bar in California...on the night of July 18, 2020.

Another photo I took of comet NEOWISE from the city of Diamond Bar in California...on the night of July 18, 2020. A faint satellite trail is visible near the upper-left part of this image.

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