This is Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the Horseshoe Canyon formation near Drumheller, Alberta on the night iof July 10-11, 2020, taken about 2 a.m. MDT with the comet just past lower culmination with it circumpolar at this time. Warm light from the rising waning gibbous Moon provides the illumination. The comet’s faint blue ion tail is just barely visible even in the moonlit sky and low altitude. The glow of summer perpetual twilight at latitude 51.5° N still colours the northern horizon despite this being close to the middle of the night. This is a blend of six 1- and 2-minute exposures for the ground at ISO 800 and 400 stacked to smooth noise, with a single 30-second exposure at ISO 1600 for the sky, all with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII, with LENR employed on this warm night. Stacked and masked with Photoshop. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky; Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground. Construction barriers prevented access to the trail down, which might have made a better image with a cleaner horizon.
The waning Moon just rising into the late evening sky with Jupiter (brightest at right) and Saturn (to the left of Jupiter) together in the southeast sky on July 6, 2020. Over the small pond at my rural home in Alberta. This is a stack of 4 exposures for the ground to smooth noise and one exposure for the sky, all 13 seconds at f/2.2 with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400.
Bright Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) rising in the northeast into the dawn sky on July 5, 2020, visible here as the small spot left of centre in the bright twilight. The northeast sky was also filled with noctilucent clouds (NLCs) that grew even more extensive this morning as the Sun angle below the horizon decreased and the NLCs lit up more to cover much of the sky. Venus is bright to the right, with the Pleiades star cluster above Venus. Capella is the bright star at top left. The comet is in a line directly down from Capella and just above the orange band of twilight. And as if that were not enough, the International Space Station flew over and away to the east in the scene here to the right of Venus, fading as it flew away. In all, this was one of the most amazing morning sky scenes I have seen. This was from home in Alberta at about 4:00 am MDT under very clear skies. The comet had passed perihelion only a few days eariler and was emerging here into the dawn sky. This is a panorama of 4 segments at 1.6 seconds each with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 100. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
