A Comet

A Comet

A comet started all of this for me.

I was unaware how possible it would be to image objects in the cosmos from my backyard. That may have never changed had my wife and I not decided to adventure out to try to catch a glimpse of comet Neowise. C/2020 F3 Neowise became bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye in June/July of 2020, right after the global lockdown of COVID 19. we coukd not see the comet from our house so we went for a walk. As soon as we rounded the corner, there it was! The comet was sitting low on the northwestern horizon, showing off a long tail pointed up and towards the north. It was the second comet I had ever witnessed, the first being comet Halle-Bopp in 1997, and the feeling of being awestruck flooded immediately back to me. It is the same feeling of amazement every time a new object is revealed with my camera.

The comet shown in the image is C/2021 A1 Leonard, taken during the early morning hours of December 5, 2021. It became bright enough to see without the aid of optics, but only from very dark skies. This comet had a trajectory that suggested it would return to the sun in 80000 years, but by April of 2022, it had completely disintegrated.