comet neowise

A newly discovered comet has been putting on a show this week.  It appears naked eye on the northeast horizon shortly before sunrise.  Since I have hills to my east and there's a lot of schmutz in the air in the mornings, on Monday and Tuesday in the early morning I drove up to Skyline Boulevard (route 35) to have a look.

Monday morning I stopped at Windy Hill and scanned around with binoculars mostly in the wrong area until I noticed an oddly shaped glow close to the twilight.  This turned out to be the comet, which had a very bright nucleus and at least a one degree tail pointed straight up, away from the sun.  It was a light yellow-orange color.  Through the binoculars the pseudo-nucleus appeared bar shaped, and the tail was faintly bifurcated right down the middle.  I estimated the tail at four degrees, given the 6 degree field of the 8x56 binoculars.  I brought my 6-inch refractor along but there was too much scintillation and atmospheric dispersion for a good view.  It was windy and cold.  The moon was near to Jupiter and Saturn on the east end of Sagittarius in the west, with Mars higher up, and bright Venus low in the east.  I looked at M31 and M45 too.  I was alone on this night

Tuesday morning had some marine fog spilling over the ridge pass, and Windy Hill was socked in.  So I kept going until I came to an overlook near Page Mill Road.  I was a bit early and the comet had not yet cleared the schmutz.  It was much windier and colder than Monday, but I was better dressed for it.  Soon the comet cleared into dark sky and I enjoyed the view again: but it seemed a little dimmer and the tail was not impressive.  I brought along the 80mm box scope and it gave a nice view.  Three more cars pulled up, all of them photographers...  After about half an hour the sky was getting too bright and I drove home.  Both times I arrived back home before anyone else woke up.

The comet is supposed to rise in the west next week, but it is likely to be dimmer than it is now.  It is said this is the brightest comet since Hale-Bopp, but I don't think it's a great comet, just a good one.   I'll take it all the same.

Here's an even better photo over the Davis Mountains by Mike Gray: