This is the story of the Great Comet Neowise expedition, a five minute drive to Shoal Point (Chebucto Head Light) from our home in Portuguese Cove. The last time I tried for a comet was Halley's Comet. We saw one later in Winnipeg but I wasn't into photography yet. I went all the way to Barbados to enjoy Halley's Comet but the spectacle was a bust. It turned out to be just a fuzzy ball with no visible tail.

Comet Neowise has a tail but it took a while for us to find it. Thank goodness we knew it was located below the Big Dipper. I was hoping to capture the International Space Station as it passed under the comet at 10:20PM ADT but alas by the time I got organized all I captured was the end of the pass. I couldn't get the camera to fire until I figured out that I had to switch the lens to manual focus. The poor camera was trying to autofocus in a black sky without success of course. I did have the camera on manual focus though so I got that part right. The first photo was taken at 200mm full frame for a 20 second exposure. The other photos were taken at at 16mm and 35mm also at 20 second exposures.

The halo of light created by the City of Halifax was a distraction.

Next time I will be better organized.

Comet Neowise

This is an unsaturated 200mm image highlighted to show the tail.

Comet Neowise .50

This is a saturated image(in colour) but also highlighted to show the tail.

Comet Neowise .70

This is the image without highlights.

Comet Neowise 0

The rest of the photos are taken at 16mm and 35mm for a much wider field.

Comet Neowise 1 Comet Neowise 2 Comet Neowise 3 Comet Neowise 4 Comet Neowise 5

Note the International Space Station on the right of the frame. It was supposed to be under the comet. Double drat!!

Comet Neowise 6 Comet Neowise 7

Before Neowise appeared there was the sunset and the after gleaming to enjoy.

Comet Neowise 8 Comet Neowise 9 Comet Neowise 10 Comet Neowise 11 Comet Neowise 12 Comet Neowise 13 Comet Neowise 14