Comet NEOWISE from Lizard Head Pass, CO
So Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE does not disappoint! After about four hours of scouting locations (heavily relying upon The Photographer’s Ephemeris), I finally found a spot that would give me more than 4-5° of shooting time before the comet set below higher terrain, although evaluating the exact spot that it will hit the horizon is incredibly difficult given the comet’s rapid movement through the sky each night and the difficulty in precisely assessing angles of terrain. Below is an image of Comet NEOWISE from Lizard Head Pass, Co in the southern San Juan mountains.
Anyway, this image shows 14,017′ Wilson Peak on the left, with 12,013′ Lizard Head on the center-right horizon. Skies again cleared around 2030, with spectacular viewing conditions at 11,015′ MSL here in the San Juan National Forest. The comet’s dust tail seems to be dragging off to the north (right, in this image), while the ion tail is becoming even longer. The coma is exhibiting a green glow at it’s leading edge, though hard to see at this presentation size.
Even though the comet is, statistically-speaking, reducing in brightness each night, it is approaching earth while getting farther from the sun each day, and will be closest to us on 7/23/20. Viewing seems to be getting better each day, so I’ll continue to chase weather among the spots on my list I’d like to shoot. It was 106° in Moab yesterday, but I still may have to head to the desert…
