Waiting for Neowise

Waiting for Neowise

It’s been a while since I was outside at night with the intention of photographing the stars. But the lure of capturing a glimpse of the comet Neowise was too tempting to let pass. And the conditions were perfect in my front yard… neither too hot nor too cold, not much humidity, and a relatively clear sky, with some wispy clouds for interest. I live on a street with no streetlights, relatively far from the center of town, and while this location probably would not qualify to be on one of the “dark sky” maps beloved by night photographers, for this relatively populated part of New England, I’d say this would be about as good as it gets.

So, I settled in to my reclining beach chair, ideally suited to adjust my viewing angle, doused myself with natural bug spray to ward off ticks and mosquitos, and tried not to to think about the fact that in the past month, a black bear, a bobcat, and the usual coyotes (plus all of the regular deer, rabbits, hawks, bats… well, you get the idea) have been seen in the neighborhood. Some very close by (the bear was two houses away from mine!). We have to share the territory, but hey, the sky is big, and there is plenty to go around for everyone.

I’d read up on my comet photography settings, adjusted my camera inside the house, so, I was mostly all set, ready to make those initial test photos that are always a part of capturing stars. And I guess, comets (although this would be my first attempt). If you consider them tests, I suppose that I would have to give myself a pretty low grade for the first round… it had been a while, after all. And although the comet was supposed to be right below the Big Dipper, by all reports it was still located close to the horizon, and so it seems that the very tall cedars in my front yard were going to block any sitings. No matter…the night was dark, soft like velvet, and there were plenty of other stars out there.

Which provided plenty of interest for the next two hours. I shifted around the yard, played with a bit of light painting, long exposures of various sorts. And the next day, when I looked at the results, there was no photo of Neowise, but there was one “outlier” photo (above), which I liked a great deal. I am not at all sure I can explain what caused some of the things in this image to happen, but I sure enjoyed doing it. Along the way, I did capture some other more conventional night photos, but this was my favorite by far. And as I was packing up my gear, it seems that one of my last images was photobombed by a firefly, as a bright yellow streak appeared in one of my frames. Sometimes the night comes, bearing gifts.