Amazing Comet NEOWISE

Until now, 2020 has been a year of nearly comets for viewers in the northern hemisphere. Yes there was a PANSTARRS comet but it was in the faint fuzzy category. Then ATLAS picked up another target which, rather than threatening planetary oblivion, promised so much before disintegrating just as its magnitude was increasing. So NEOWISE did not initially grab my interest. The summer nights are short and not fully dark from the UK, and the comet was going to be low above the horizon. So was it worth a night of disturbed sleep? YES!

Having done a daytime recce of possible sites near my village, doubling up the trip as a dog walk, I settled on a sloping field on the northern boundary that seemed to fit the bill. But as I trudged from my house with camera and tripod at 3.30am on the 11th July, I was stopped in my tracks to see an unmissable streak of light between a pair of trees as I walked down my drive. I quickly got to work, setting up my EOS and playing about with 50 and 200mm lenses. These are the best results over 2 nights.