Comet C/2020 F3

[Mac]

Seeing as everyone is jumping on the band wagon,
Taken just a few mins ago, 03:30 Saturday morning.

Very clear morning sky.





For the more technical details, as all my stuff is in boxes, this was taken with my D3 & 300m telephoto lens,
Stuck into a bean bag on top of my car.

Mac.

[MarkS]

Well done Mac!

This is definitely something not to be missed.  But it does need good visibility i.e. transparency.

Mark

[Carole]

Well done Mac, love the bean bag mount lol.

Carole

[Mac]

I've charged my batteries and found the telescope mount,
Will try again tonight with the bean bag and see what i can get

Mac.

[NoelC]

Excellent Mac
Not seen it yet; was wondering what time it was around till.

Noel

[Rick]

It's a circumpolar object at present from the UK, west of north at sunset, north and low around midnight, and rising into the north-east before sunrise.

[MarkS]

Not seen it yet; was wondering what time it was around till.

Comets are very unpredictable but the evidence shows to to be still very active.  It could well be visible with the naked eye until the end of the week, maybe the end of the month.  Closest approach to Earth is 23 July.

Mark

[Hugh]

Nice pictures Mac ~ love the use of the bean bag!

Shown below is an extract from the 'Astronomy Now' internet and seems freely available by search.  Carole and I used this info as a prompt for times for our observing the night of 10/11th.  For us about 0200, it was about 10 degrees up and easily found after using the compass for NNE.  It was easily bino visible and just (for me) eyesight visible with averted vision.

For me, using binos the tail clearly started to shorten about 0245 when twilight started but would probably still be OK for a camera I suppose. Carole's picture(s) were taken about 0220/30'ish.

We had quite a bright Moon and glow from London.

Hugh

On the morning of 11 July by the beginning of nautical twilight (when the Sun lies between 12 and 6 degrees below the horizon), which occurs at around 2.45am and 3am BST (01:45 and 02:00 UT) from Manchester and London (in Scotland, nautical twilight persists throughout the night), respectively, NEOWISE lies about nine degrees above the north-north-eastern horizon. It's located among the stars of Auriga, just over eight degrees east-south-east of magnitude +1.9 Menkalinan (beta) Aurigae. Brilliant Capella, lying at just under 20 degrees altitude is a good guide for locating the comet. Look to Capella's left (east) to find Menkalinan, and then by roughly the same distance again in the same direction to find the comet. Try sweeping with a pair of binoculars to find it and then see if you can see it without optical aid.

Comet NEOWISE is circumpolar (never-setting) across the length and breadth of UK. It's visible for a while shortly after sunset too, but over this weekend your best chance of seeing or imaging it is to have to get up early to catch it in the pre-dawn sky. You'll need to find an outlook with an unobstructed horizon from due north around to the north-east (the comet's azimuth is between about 27 and 32 degrees).

As the month progresses, the comet improves in visibility across the UK, increasing in elevation as it moves north-eastwards through Auriga. Hopefully, it will hold steady in brightness, but there's no knowing exactly how it will behave as it pulls away from the Sun. NEOWISE then becomes better placed in the early-evening sky; by Monday 13 July at the end of civil twilight, it sits about 15 degrees above the north-north-west horizon (at an azimuth of between 332 and 340 degrees). It's still on show in the pre-dawn sky.

By mid-month, comet NEOWISE has moved into neighbouring Lynx and will have improved significantly in early-evening visibility, lying not far short of 20 degrees altitude in the north-north-western sky at the end of civil twilight (at about 10pm, 10.20pm and 10.40pm BST (21:00, 21:20 and 21:40 UT) from London, Manchester and Edinburgh, respectively. The comet has picked up speed in its motion across the sky as it heads towards closest approach to Earth, which occurs on 23 July when NEOWISE passes us at a distance of 0.69 astronomical unit or 103 million kilometres.

Although cometNEOWISE can't be ranked along the great comets of the past (yet...!), such as Hale-Bopp or 2006 P1 (McNaught), it's one to enjoy as the first naked-eye comet of 2020 and an anecdote to the earlier naked-eye disappointments of comets 2019 Y4 (ATLAS) and 2020 F8 (SWAN).

[Fay]

well done Mac....

[Mac]

I was checking, just as well i've not moved to spain yet (4 weeks) as its not visible from where we will be,
it sets and rises during twilight, so im pretty luck in that respect.

[Roberto]

Excellent shots Mac!

Roberto