PORTLAND, Maine – The newly discovered NEOWISE comet is putting on a show in the night skies over Maine right now. It is one of the rare kites that reveals its tail to anyone with a modest set of binoculars, and NEOWISE becomes even more impressive when taking its photograph.
“In my life, I have seen 30 or 40 kites. This is just the room I’ve seen that has a tail that you can obviously see, ”said astronomer educator and photographer John Meader of Fairfield.
Meader knows what he is talking about.
Since 1987, the Northern Stars Planetarium has operated. It is an inflatable star dome that travels to over 100 elementary and middle schools in Maine each year, reaching more than 18,000 students. Before that, Meader worked in planetariums at the Francis Malcolm Science Center in Easton and at the University of Maine in Orono.
“You can’t see most comets without a telescope, and most of the time, they look like a star that someone tried to erase with an eraser, and there is no noticeable tail,” he said. “With this one, you look through binoculars and you will see that tail. It’s really clear. ”
NEOWISE has been visible in Maine for at least a couple of weeks, but until a few days ago, you had to get up before sunrise to see it. Now, it can be seen at night just after sunset. NEOWISE is expected to be 10 percent brighter this weekend and will remain in the sky until mid-August.
The comet’s proper name is C / 2020 F3 NEOWISE. It is named after NASA’s near-Earth near-Earth wide-field infrared exploration explorer telescope, which first saw it on March 27. Like all comets, it is basically a giant dirty iceball of space travel and organic materials left over after the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. NEOWISE’s tail is made of dust and vaporizing gases that are emitted as it travels close to the sun.
It’s worth noting that as the comet approaches Earth in its giant orbit around the solar system, this is our only chance to get a good look at it and its striking tail. NEOWISE will not return this way in any of our lives.
To find the comet yourself, Meader said, just grab some binoculars. Any pair will. They don’t have to be expensive. Its power lies not in making NEOWISE look bigger, but in gathering more light than its eyes can by themselves.
“Scan just above the horizon in the northwest just after sunset and it will come into view,” Meader said. “You will see it with a cute tail. It’s very sweet.”
It is possible, with a very dark sky, to see the comet without binoculars, Meader said, but it will be difficult. Also, warn that through binoculars, it will not look exactly like the stunning pictures you have taken. Just as binoculars collect more light with their lenses, a camera captures even more with long exposures.
“You have to remember that when you take pictures, you are gathering photons over time, which illuminates everything,” said Meader. “Your eyes can’t do that.”
It’s the same reason that bright images of sky space always show more stars and a brighter Milky Way than the human eye can detect. NEOWISE’s recent Meader photo at Skowhegan was a 5-second exposure.
To take a picture of the comet, Meader said photographers will need a camera with manual controls, a tripod, and some sort of remote shutter or timer control.
First, find the comet with binoculars, and then point your tripod-mounted camera in the same direction, manually focusing on infinity. Then raise the ISO to maximum, that’s the sensitivity to light from the camera, and open the aperture fully. The aperture is the hole inside the lens, which controls the amount of light that passes through.
To make the exposure, set the shutter to something like 5 seconds and shoot. Use a remote control or the timer function which will ensure that you do not shake the camera by pressing the shutter button with your finger.
If the image comes out too light, make the shutter speed a little faster. If it is very dark, make it longer.
“But you can’t take a very long exposure because the stars will start tracking,” said Meader.
That is because, although we cannot perceive it, the Earth rotates on its axis, making the stars appear to rotate around the North Star every night.
Meader said it’s about experimenting with your camera settings and admits that there are some nights when your photos don’t come out either. The important part is having fun outside, under the skies, she adds.
“It takes you to an interesting place,” he said. “You are facing something beautiful. I like that.”
John Meader is organizing a socially estranged Public Star Party at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville from 11 to 11:45 pm Wednesday.
