Early “birds” don’t only find worms; this week they may see a comet in the morning twilight.
Local astronomer Drew Sorenson shares photos of Comet Neowise he took Monday morning. The photos are taken with only his camera; a telescope isn’t needed to see Neowise.
Neowise is the brightest comet in 23 years, astronomers say. Its closest pass around the Earth will be July 22. Even then, it will be 64 million miles away. It’s visible in the northeast sky to the naked eye, although binoculars help. It’s as bright as a typical star, but has a smudged glowing tail.
Sorenson said being in town “isn’t normally the way to ‘do astronomy’,” but he wanted to show the comet with a landmark people would identify.
Sorenson shares what he knows about all things in space and photography. He took the photo with the bell tower at 4:39 am with an Olympus OMD EM5 camera using an old Nikon 105mm f/2.5 lens at ISO 32000 for 1/3 second. He held the camera against his car for stability. “It is amazing what modern digitals can do,” he said.
He took the photo without the bell tower south and east of the Jefferson airport at 4:13 am. He used the same camera and set up, but held the shutter open for 2.5 seconds.
“For a few more days, at least, it will still be visible in the morning skies, but it would be good to find it before twilight starts. By about 4:50, it would be quite hard to find,” he said.
