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Solar System
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE 7/22/2020
Comet NEOWISE has climbed higher in the night sky and into darker skies which has made it a much easier target to image and view at night.
While it's dimmed to +3 magnitude it is still very easy to spot visually with the unaided eye and is a fantastic object in binoculars, but you'll need to head out to low light polluted skies, suburban or preferably urban skies, the darker the better. As we move into the weekend the Moon will start to interfere with observing or imaging Comet NEOWISE, the best opportunities to see it will be Thursday 7/23 or Friday 7/24. Right now, it is about 0.69 AU away from Earth its closest approach to us which is a bit over half of the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. Despite its closeness to Earth it is moving further away from the Sun which provides the energy to produce the beautiful grey/yellow dust tail, blue ion tail and green coma, this will cause NEOWISE to continue to dim as it returns to the dark recesses of the outer solar system.
Here's how to find dark skies by you: https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/39.00/-98.00
Here's a handy guide on how to spot Comet NEOWISE: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise
Date: 7/22/2020 21:35-21:42 PDT
4x120" at 1600ISO
10x Dark
20x Bias
Camera: Canon 6D Hutech UV/IR Mod
Telescope: William Optics Star 71 Astrograph
Reveal Focus Filter by David Lane
Mount: Celestron Advanced VX
Guide Scope: Orion Mag Mini With SSAG
Capture Software: Backyard EOS
Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker
Processing: Photoshop CC, PixInsight, Starnet
Location: Lockwood Valley, Los Padres National Forest, California
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