The last ten days have been a flurry of comet adventures. Following are images from those days and finishing up with a naked eye sketch from last night. It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of those.
The comet became more and more beautiful as it lofted into the dark evening sky. Once it was high enough to stay on display after twilight, its expansive dust tail became increasingly impressive. By last night, I was able to trace that out to about 17 degrees in length. The ion tail has been obvious through binoculars for a few days and last night I was also able to discern it by noting the dark notch between both tails. It doesn’t appear as a thin beam visually, just as the left side of a darker wedge.
In order starting on July 8th:
C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 8 July 2020, 3:40AM MST / 1040UT
North of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 9 July 2020, 3:44AM MST / 1044UT
Wupakti National Monument, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 9 July 2020, 3:57AM MST / 1057UT
Wupakti National Monument, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 13 July 2020, 9:07PM MST / 0407UT
East of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 13 July 2020, 9:15PM MST / 0415UT
East of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 14 July 2020, 8:55PM MST / 0355UT
Southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 15 July 2020, 9:54PM MST / 0454UT
West of Ash Fork, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 16 July 2020, 9:21PM MST / 0421UT
South of Ash Fork, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 17 July 2020, 10:54PM MST / 0554UT
West of Ash Fork, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 17 July 2020, 11:09PM MST / 0609UT
Milky Way view in opposite direction, West of Ash Fork, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 18 July 2020, 9:25PM MST / 0425UT
North of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) – 18 July 2020, 9:00-10:00PM MST / 0400-0500UT
Naked eye observation sketch, North of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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