Comet Behind Clouds

by Rob Hemphill

Title

Comet Behind Clouds

Artist

Rob Hemphill

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Comet Neowise is traveling at about 40 miles per second (that's about 144,000 mph, or 231,000 km/h). It is closest to earth on this particular day (23rd July 2020) at 64 million miles away, and therefore is further from the sun which accounts for its reduced level of brightness.

This image was captured in County Tipperary in Ireland on a fairly cloudy night. Clouds are seen as an orange colour creeping in. Just a few minutes after this shot was taken all visibility was gone for good - or at least the next 6,800 years before it returns!

The comet appeared fairly low in the north-western sky in the constellation of Ursa Major, below the asterism of the Big Dipper (The Plough). For observers in the northern hemisphere, it can also be seen in the morning, the comet appears very low above the north-eastern horizon, below Capella.

C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) or Comet NEOWISE is a long period comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope. At that time, it was an 18th-magnitude object, located 2 AU (300 million km; 190 million mi) away from the Sun and 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) away from Earth.

In July 2020, it was bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. It is one of the brightest comets in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997 and was widely observed as being clearly visible with the naked eye. Under dark skies, it can be clearly seen with the naked eye and might remain visible to the naked eye throughout most of July 2020, at least until July 23, the point of the comet's closest approach to Earth. Prior to that date, the comet will be getting closer to Earth as it moves farther away from the Sun. As of July 18, the comet was about magnitude 3. Near urban areas binoculars are required to locate the comet.

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Featured in the following FAA Groups:

"A Beautiful Blue - Nature Only" 08/08/2020
"New FAA Uploads" 08/02/2020
"Bedroom Art Gallery" 08/01/2020
"Your Very Best Photography" 07/31/2020
"Art and Meditation" 07/31/2020
"Your Story of Art" 07/29/2020
"Just Perfect" 07/28/2020
"Abstract Moods" 07/28/2020
"The Outdoor Photographer" 07/28/2020
"Light Rays And Lightning" 07/28/2020
"Light Marvels" 07/28/2020

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Uploaded

July 28th, 2020

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