C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Martian fly-by

One reason I don’t observe from home often is the narrow swath of clear sky I have through my wooded lot, even in the best conditions. But here, I caught Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) just in time!

The Green Comet

…As referred to by the current news articles. But casting ones gaze through binoculars and even my 8″ telescope yielded C/2022 E3 (ZTF) as – a fuzzy gray star. Good thing camera’s see in the dark!

NEOWISE, Hercules, and the Swan

Ah, another beautiful night for hunting comet NEOWISE. I watched for quite a while as it set in the NW sky, and then took some photos of the Swan nebula and M13 (the Hercules cluster): Turn the swan upside-down to see it.

Comet NEOWISE

I don’t know where I was when the last naked-eye comet was around. Maybe I was too busy to notice, or I was under the city lights, or I just didn’t care. But holy cow, if I missed such a sight as comet NEOWISE, then I’ll start kicking myself retroactively! For after my first glimpse […]