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Comet NEOWISE Over Dinosaur Park (July 15, 2020).jpg
This is Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the badlands and formations of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on the night of July 14-15, 2020, at about 12:30 am local time with it nearly due north and as low as it got for the night at this latitude of 51° N. A green and magenta aurora colours the northern sky also blue with perpetual summer twilight. Capella is at far right.
The comet’s dim blue ion tail is visible here extending some 18° to the top of the frame; the whitish curving dust tail extends about 12° though it becomes lost in the sky still bright with twilight and the aurora this night. This is a classic comet! Very much the dimmer twin of Comet Hale-Bopp from April 1997.
This is a blend of 6 exposures for the ground stacked to smooth noise, with a single exposure for the sky, with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The ground exposures are 1- and 2-minutes at ISO 1600 and f/2.8, while the single untracked sky exposure was 20 seconds at ISO 3200 and f/2.5. There was no Moon, thus the need to take very long exposures for the ground to reveal details in the landscape here illuminated by just starlight and the faint aurora that was to the north and that was barely visible to the eye. Otherwise the ground would have been a featureless silhouette.
So, yes, this image shows much more than the eye could see unaided due to the long exposures, but that’s the point and attraction of astrophotography — to record celestial objects and scenes with more detail than the eye can see. Indeed, any exposure longer than a second is bound to show more than the eye can detect.
However, in binoculars the ion tail was barely visible, helped by knowing it was there. But the dust tail could be see to this extent, but in binoculars! However, the comet was still a fine sight naked eye, with an obvious tail about 5° to 6° long to the eye, despite the bright midnight sky.
LENR employed in camera on all shots this warm night to remove thermal speckling and colour ca
The comet’s dim blue ion tail is visible here extending some 18° to the top of the frame; the whitish curving dust tail extends about 12° though it becomes lost in the sky still bright with twilight and the aurora this night. This is a classic comet! Very much the dimmer twin of Comet Hale-Bopp from April 1997.
This is a blend of 6 exposures for the ground stacked to smooth noise, with a single exposure for the sky, with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The ground exposures are 1- and 2-minutes at ISO 1600 and f/2.8, while the single untracked sky exposure was 20 seconds at ISO 3200 and f/2.5. There was no Moon, thus the need to take very long exposures for the ground to reveal details in the landscape here illuminated by just starlight and the faint aurora that was to the north and that was barely visible to the eye. Otherwise the ground would have been a featureless silhouette.
So, yes, this image shows much more than the eye could see unaided due to the long exposures, but that’s the point and attraction of astrophotography — to record celestial objects and scenes with more detail than the eye can see. Indeed, any exposure longer than a second is bound to show more than the eye can detect.
However, in binoculars the ion tail was barely visible, helped by knowing it was there. But the dust tail could be see to this extent, but in binoculars! However, the comet was still a fine sight naked eye, with an obvious tail about 5° to 6° long to the eye, despite the bright midnight sky.
LENR employed in camera on all shots this warm night to remove thermal speckling and colour ca
- Copyright
- © 2020 Alan Dyer
- Image Size
- 6240x4160 / 14.8MB
- www.amazingsky.photoshelter.com
- Contained in galleries
- Comets, Alberta & Saskatchewan Nightscapes
