This is Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over Deadhorse Lake near Hussar in southern Alberta, taken just before midnight on July 10-11, 2020 during its evening appearance. The comet shines just above low noctilucent clouds. The slight wind ruffled the waters enough to prevent the clean reflection I was after. The foreground has “puffball” plants viewed in cultural legends and depicted on tipis by First Nations Blackfoot people as having come from shooting stars. Not comets per se, but the celestial connection and juxtapostion here is still a nice one. This is a blend of 13 exposures for the ground stacked to smooth noise, with a single exposure for the sky, with the 50mm Sigma lens for 15 to 30 seconds at f/5.6 for the ground and 8s at f/2.8 for the sky, all with Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400, with LENR employed on this warm night. Stacked and masked with Photoshop. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky; Topaz Sharpen applied to the ground.
A telescopic close-up of Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on the morning of July 10, 2020 with it in blue dawn twilight. The yellowish dust tail is promiment but a fine blue gas tail is just barely visible. Clouds prevented shooting earlier when it would have been in a darker sky and even so I was shooting through breaks in the scattered clouds. This is a median combine stack of 6 x 45-second tracked but unguided exposures with the SharpStar 76mm apo refractor at f/4.5 for 340mm focal length and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800.
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) with a lone tree on the Alberta prairie on the morning of July 9, 2020, with ground fog in the immediate foreground. Some wispy noctilucent clouds are visible closer to the horizon but did not obstruct the view of the comet this morning. Thus the comet was easily visible to the naked eye well into twilight. This is a stack of 14 exposures for the dark ground to smooth noise and one untracked exposure for the sky and clouds, all 5 seconds at f/2.8 with the 85mm Rokinon lens and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400. Shot from “One Tree Hill” near home in southern Alberta. Moonlight from the waning gibbous Moon illuminates the foreground.
