Beth read that a comet might be visible tonight, so we made an impromptu trip to a campground with a clear view to the west.
It was a quick and easy trip.
1445 68,827 78° Leave home
1631 68,900 77° Boydton, VA
North Bend Park, site 115
US Army Corp of Engineers
I had just washed the van on Saturday so our 2018 Pleasure-Way Lexor TS looked good.
Sunset
Beth’s research said that the comet would be visible in the Western sky, about level with, and to the right of, Venus
6:31 PM
1/160 sec, f/22, ISO 800
Nikon D750 w/70-200 f/2.8 lens@200MM
About ten people were on the point of B loop waiting to see if we could see the comet as the moon rose behind us in the east.
6:46 PM
1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800
Nikon D750 w/70-200 f/2.8 lens@200MM
We had two phones and an SLR ready for picture taking. Beth has a new iPhone 15 Pro and I’m using my trusty Nikon D750 for the comet, and an iPhone 15 Plus for snapshots.
We are including the settings used for each image in case it helps other amateur night sky photographers.
7:03 PM
1/60, f/2.4, ISO 1000
iPhone 15 Plus
Sky without the comet
You can double click on any image to enlarge it.
7:20 PM
1/4 sec, f/1.8, ISO 500
iPhone 15 Pro
Six minutes later the comet started to become visible.
7:26 PM
1/3 sec at f/5.8, ISO 1000
iPhone 15 Pro
As the sky continued to darken the comet stood out, even for those without long lenses.
7:43 PM
8.0 sec, f/5.0, ISO 320
Nikon D750 w/70-200 f/2.8 lens@70MM
Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is about as close as it is going to get to earth tonight at about 43.9 million miles away.
7:43 PM
2.5 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320
Nikon D750 w/70-200 f/2.8 lens@70MM
Planes crossing in front of the comet left a red and green dashed line. I wonder if passengers were observing the phenomenon from the air.
Note: Beth sets up her iPhone camera on a tripod, in night mode, and activates the shutter from her Apple watch.
7:52 PM
2.0 sec, f/1.8, ISO 1600
iPhone 15 Pro
As the evening continued the comet appeared to drop in the night sky.
Shortly after Beth captured this photo Tsuchinshan-Atlas disappeared into low lying clouds.
Comet viewing was perfect for us old folks. We were done and back in the van by 8:15!
After a good night’s sleep, Monday morning’s sunrise greeted us through the back windows of the van.
Here are a couple of views of our site (115 in B loop). No electric or water, but a nice lake view and a large site with good space between us and our neighbors.
As senior pass holders we get 1/2 off, so the site was only $12 for the night.
One last view of our site. There were a couple more sites between us and the point. The best would be 118.
After breakfast we decided to head over to Tailrace Park. On other visits we’ve seen lots of eagles and osprey fishing in the turbid outflow from the base of the big dam.
