Astronomy

Observing Log for

Session Details


Sheriffmuir Road

56.1702, -3.90552

225m

Notes

A mild night with a breeze.

Observations

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

My first observation of Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE. Upon stepping out of the car the comet was immediately obvious to the naked eye low in the northern sky. Its graceful tail arced into the sky and it was a noticeably golden colour.

Although there was a reasonable amount of cloud around we had good viewing conditions and were able to view the Comet with both binoculars and the Vixen 80mm telescope. It was a beautiful sight. I used the camera mount to take some afocal images of the comet using the 25mm eyepiece.

Throughout the observing session a spectacular display of Noctilucent Clouds developed and these provided an interesting backdrop for the comet. Sadly, their presence prematurely brightened the sky meaning the comet was lost to the naked eye. I continued to observe it through the telescope and used the Canon 450D to take a series of images which I aligned and stacked to get the below result.

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE
Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise
Comet NEOWISE

Images