Well, the comet is hanging out higher in the sky now, but that brings its own problem in trying to spot the dim object.
Anyway, the azimuth for pointing your camera is still in the northeast, but now you have to scan up and down in altitude to find the comet with your camera. So, yep, there it is, just outside in our driveway, high in the sky at 9:10 pm. Once I spotted the comet in the camera, I moved across the street a bit so that some palm trees were in the shot too!
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| Comet NEOWISE to the right of the palm trees, 75 mm, 8 second, DSLR (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Previously, we had re-posted some shots from other OCA, so after just one more, we will go on to look at other shots from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the International Space Station (ISS). But first check out this raw LiveView screen shot of the comet as seen from Bryce Canyon. That is a great shot. Thanks for sharing, OCA Wally! If you want to see the finished photo, you can check out this and other processed photos on Wally's website: https://astropics.com/New-
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| Raw view of comet as seen in Bryce Canyon (Source: OCA Wally Pacholka) |
We can also check out the comet above the launch pad at KSC. Here in this SpaceX photo we can see the comet above the launch pad with a Falcon 9 rocket ready for launch.
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| Comet NEOWISE at KSC with Falcon 9 ready for launch (Source: SpaceX) |
If you want to get to even a higher location to view the comet, you probably can't get much higher than the comet as seen from the ISS. Pretty neat! Thanks to Moved to Florida, Bill, for pointing us to that video! If you want to see the rest of the 7 minute video, which shows the view of the Earth slowly rotating underneath the ISS, check out: https://biggeekdad.com/2020/07/comet-neowise-from-international-space-station/
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| Great views from ISS with Earth below and Comet NEOWISE (Source: NASA) |
In other SpaceX news, we can follow the Falcon 9 booster, which broke multiple turnaround records, perched on the recovery barge heading back to KSC for refurbishment and potential relaunch.
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| Recovered Falcon 9 booster coming back for more (Source: Nasaspaceflight.com) |
We also keep waiting for news about the upcoming static fire and test hop of Starship SN5 from Boca Chica. It seems the test hop is possible in the next week or two. Too bad we really can't travel down there to see this happen, but thanks to @BocaChicaGal and nasaspaceslight.com we get to follow what is happening!
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| Static fire and test hop of SN5 is just about here (Source: nasaspaceflight.com) |
After all of that internet news it was time out for us to revisit a classic movie that showed up on MeTV with Svengoolie, titled "The Wolf Man" from 1941. In this screenshot from the movie you can see our "hero", Lon Chaney, Jr, inside his father's (Claude Rains) observatory. Unfortunately, or maybe to fit the script, our hero is not looking at the stars but the beautiful shopkeeper (Evelyn Ankers) looking out her bedroom window. Hmm, so that is the (other) reason to get a big telescope! Well, it was 1941; Who knew!
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| Available Observatory comes with wolf man (Lon Chaney, Jr) at scope (Source: The Wolf Man, 1941) |
Well, after seeing the Wolf Man and remembering how scary it was to walk home at night, it was time to venture out, now that we are not afraid of the dark, and have dinner on the Tutto Fresco patio. You need your mask to get in, but once on the patio the food and drinks come. Hey, how come Resident Astronomer Peggy's drink came in a martini glass and my drink did not? Her drink was called "Spa Water", as unrefreshing as that sounds was actually quite tasty and my drink was "Tropic Thunder", was very tasty too, and came with a flower. Now, if we could just get to the point where we could enjoy dinner out with friends.
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| Resident Astronomers on the Tutto Fresco patio (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Until next time, here from our burrow, stay safe, as we recover more of our freedom,
Resident Astronomer George
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