Aug 012020
 

The skies finally cleared enough to try to see the comet. We headed north to an area just south of I-10 off of Hwy 285. It is a large field cleared of trees and has an excellent western horizon. Unfortunately, it also has a surprising amount of nighttime traffic.

We set up just before sunset and waited. The setting Sun was pretty enough to take a shot. The camera I was using does not have a live view capability so I just pointed it using a compass and a guess as to altitude and hoped the comet was in the FOV. One of the first shots during dusk was lucky. If you click on the image on the right it will display full size. The comet is just visible to the lower right of the two stars. Although the picture shows blue skies it was taken after the sunset picture but at a 6 second exposure.

For the rest of the evening I took images using the guess method, but after processing, 10 of the 22 images contained the comet in some way.

During the evening Donna and I were joined by a NWFAA club member Walter Dunn. None of us saw the comet naked eye but each of us was able to find and view it in binoculars. Ultimately, clouds and haze moved in and hindered viewing the comet. We left just before the comet set.

 Posted by at 13:32

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