This NASA image of the Parker solar probe uses processed data to show the twin tails of Comet Neowise.
NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Naval Research Laboratory / Parker Solar Probe / Guillermo Stenborg
NASA says Comet Neowise is the brightest a space ice ball to fly across Earth since at least 1997, and now he’s making a show in the night sky, sending hopeful astrophotographers into the dark.
Many beautiful images of the comet appearing on the horizon just before sunrise or shortly after sunset have been circulating online, even when most people still needed binoculars to locate the space visitor. This leads to an obvious question: how the hell did they get those great shots?
Neowise over Cheyenne, Wyoming on July 12.
Spaceweather.com/Jan Curtis
It takes a little planning and patience, but with the right equipment and a little cooperation from the weather, almost anyone can do it. Here are some basic tips to get you started.
Choose the right time and place
During the rest of its execution, Comet Neowise will appear mainly in the night skies of the northwest and west. See my previous post for more details on exactly where to look or use an online sky mapping tool like TheSkyLive.com for your time and location.
Where to look for Neowise in July.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Once you know which direction to look, you should get as far away from all light pollution as possible and make sure you have as clear and wide a view of the night sky as possible. Clouds and city lights can really ruin your astrophotography plans.
Some more intrepid photographers have gone up into the mountains late at night or early in the morning to get the best possible views, often with remarkable results. Just make sure you prepare and be sure if you are going to go on an expedition.
Grab your gear
As a comet glides through space at 17,500 miles per hour (28,159 kilometers per hour), it seems almost stationary from our perspective. That means shooting Neowise is about precision and long exposures rather than any kind of action shot. As such you will need a sturdy tripod and a camera with a good zoom telephoto lens. You should be able to configure the lens and camera for manual focus and exposure, and use a default Bulb, Time, or Long Exposure mode to manage exposure. If you really want to go the extra mile, use a camera with a shutter release cable, self-timer, or some other remote operation capability to avoid any shake or blur that may arise when you press the shutter button.
It does not hurt to bring a wide angle lens too. The tail of a kite can occupy a wide enough area that a zoom lens is not always practical. This is how many have been able to capture especially stupendous images of both Neowise and the Northern Lights.
“I was excited to see that my wide-angle lens could capture the span from STEVE (an aurora-related phenomenon) to Neowise, and I got about 10 photos,” Manitoba-based photographer Donna Lach told NASA. “I watched the incredible aurora for about three hours, and sometimes it stretched above me. Sometimes, Neowise was overshadowed by the bright aurora, but it was visible all the time.”
To experience!
Once you find the right place, locate the kite and set up your gear, the real work begins. First off the autofocus on your camera and play around with different focal lengths, exposure times, and frame compositions. You may want to isolate the comet or capture it against the landscape.
See this:
Tips for catching the Neowise comet with your camera
1:15
When NASA’s Bill Dunford photographed the comet while it was visible to the naked eye before sunrise, he found a certain sweet spot for the best images.
“I walked over and exposed each shot for about four seconds,” he explains in the previous video.
Trust the processing
We live in a photoshop world, but with astrophotography you can use image processing to make Neowise look more like he appears in person.
This will again require some experimentation and good image-editing software, but Dunford advises playing to see if it can brighten the image and bring out the comet’s brightness and reduce noise. This is most likely how your brain actually processed the received image of your retinas in real life.
Neowise about Washington, DC
NASA / Bill Ingalls
Sharing wealth
Be sure to share what you capture with the world. Some of us are looking at a forecast of cloudy skies at night for next week, despite living in the desert of the southwest. Share your images with me on Twitter and Instagram @EricCMack.
