Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Steve Elliot
July 11, 2020 - 2:25 PM
A West Kelowna resident was up early this morning to capture images of a comet overhead.
Avid astrophotographer Steve Elliot posted in a well-known Glenrosa Facebook group about the unusually bright comet 2020 F3 NEOWISE after he caught it on camera without a telescope. The image was taken very early July 10 looking low to the horizon in the North East.
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE was discovered on March 27, 2020, roughly 525 kilometres above Earth’s surface by NEOWISE, the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, a NASA space telescope, according to EarthSky.
The comet was closest to the sun July 3, passing at about 43 million km from the sun, or a bit closer than the average distance from the sun to Mercury. Observers are still reporting seeing it, so the comet survived the close encounter with our star.
“If the comet remains relatively bright, it might be easier to see in the second half of July during evening dusk, because, at that time, it will appear somewhat higher in the sky,” according to the website.
“This one is special due to it gaining enough brightness to see it without the telescope which is pretty rare,” Elliot said.
Want to take better photos of the night sky but don’t know where to start? We have a few tips that can help.
READ MORE: How to make your night sky photography stand out
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