[Leica] Comet Neowise

[Howard L Ritter Jr]

Keep watching the comet over the next week. Although it’s outbound from the Sun and getting intrinsically fainter, it’s approaching the Earth and will make its closest approach on Wednesday. I don’t know what the effect of the two opposing trends on its brightness will be, but it should remain well visible in binoculars. Its path will be taking it higher in the NW sky relative to the dome of twilight until about August 1-2, so there may be a chance of seeing it in a sky that’s actually dark next week. I plan to try imaging it through one of my tracking telescopes (for time exposures and image scale) during that time.

—howard

> On Jul 19, 2020, at 6:12 AM, Peter Klein via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> 
> Here's the comet, as seen from Richmond Beach, just north of Seattle:
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/50128829231/in/dateposted-public/>
> 
> I envy those of you with dark skies (Great shots, Aram!).  I scouted around our area a few days ago, and found what I thought would be an ideal spot--Kayu Kayu park, with a clear view to the northwest over Puget Sound.  But there was a little matter of street lights and ghastly sodium vapor lights illuminating the sewage treatment plant right below the comet.  Plus, the local constabulary were present to make sure nobody entered the park proper after the official dusk closing time. So my best laid plans for a dark spot at the far end of the park were foiled.
> 
> I set up a tripod by the side of the road and did the best I could anyway. This shot was taken with an Olympus E-M5 and an old Olympus OM Zuiko 135/3.5 lens, effectively 270mm.  I could barely see the comet with the naked eye and not at all in the viewfinder.  So I aimed by shooting blind with a 45mm lens, centered the comet by trial and error, and then switched to longer lenses.
> 
> Enjoy!  More to come...
> --Peter
> 
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