This NASA image from the Parker Solar Probe uses processed data to show comet Neowise’s twin tails.
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab/Parker Solar Probe/Guillermo Stenborg
NASA says comet Neowise is the brightest space iceball to fly by Earth since at least 1997, and it’s now putting on a show in the evening sky, sending hopeful astrophotographers out into the dark.
Plenty of gorgeous images of the comet appearing over the horizon just before sunrise or shortly after sunset have been circulating online, even as most people still were needing binoculars to locate the speeding space visitor. This leads to an obvious question: How the heck did they get those great shots?
Neowise over Cheyenne, Wyoming on July 12.
Spaceweather.com/Jan Curtis
It takes a little planning and patience, but with the right equipment and a little cooperation from the weather, just about anyone can do it. Here are some basic tips to get you started.
Pick the right time and place
During the rest of its run, comet Neowise will appear primarily in the northwest and western evening skies. See my earlier post for more details on exactly where to look or use an online sky mapping tool like TheSkyLive.com for your time and location.
Where to look for Neowise in July.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Once you know which direction to face, you’ll need to get as far away from all light pollution as possible and make sure you’ll have as clear and broad a view of the night sky as you can find. Clouds and city lights can really ruin your astrophotography plans.
Some more intrepid photographers have taken to late-night or early-morning mountain climbs to get the best vantage points possible, often with remarkable results. Just be sure to prepare and be safe if you’re going to make an expedition out of it.
Grab your gear
While a comet zips through space at 17,500 miles per hour (28,159 kilometers per hour), it appears almost stationary from our perspective. That means photographing Neowise is about precision and long exposures rather than any sort of action shots. As such, you’ll need a sturdy tripod and a camera with a good telephoto zoom lens. You’ll need to be able to set the lens and camera to manual focus and exposure, as well as use a Bulb, Time or long-exposure preset mode to handle the exposure. If you really want to go the extra mile, use a camera with a shutter release cable, self-timer or some other remote operation capability to prevent any shaking or blurring that might come from pressing the shutter button.
It doesn’t hurt to bring a wide-angle lens as well. The tail of a comet can take up a wide enough area that a zoom lens might not always be practical. That’s how many have been able to grab especially stupendous images of both Neowise and the aurora borealis.
“I was excited to see my wide-angle lens could capture the span from STEVE (an aurora-related phenomenon) to Neowise, and got about 10 photos,” Manitoba-based photographer Donna Lach told NASA. “I observed the incredible aurora for about three hours, and it sometimes stretched above me. At times Neowise was outshone by the brilliant aurora, but it was visible the entire time.”
Experiment!
Once you’ve found the right spot, located the comet and set up your equipment, the real work begins. First, ditch auto-focus on your camera and play with different focal lengths, exposure times and frame compositions. You might want to isolate the comet, or capture it against the landscape.
Now playing: Watch this:
Tips for catching comet Neowise with your camera
1:15
When NASA’s Bill Dunford photographed the comet while it was visible with the naked eye before dawn, he found a certain sweet spot for getting the best images.
“I zoomed in on it and exposed each shot for about four seconds,” he explains in the above video.
Trust the processing
We live in a photoshopped world, but with astrophotography you can use image processing to make Neowise look more as it appears in person.
This will again require some experimentation and good image-editing software, but Dunford advises playing around to see if you can brighten the image and bring out the brilliance of the comet and reduce noise. This is more likely to be how your brain actually processed the image received from your retinas in real life.
Neowise over Washington, D.C.
NASA/Bill Ingalls
Share the wealth
Be sure to share whatever you capture with the world. Some of us are staring down a forecast of cloudy evening skies for the next week, despite living in the southwest desert. Please share your images with me on Twitter and Instagram @EricCMack.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
