the green comet

I’ve been waiting for weeks for the clouds to clear for at least a little while so I could try to locate the Green Comet (C/2022 E3) in the sky. It’s been visible to us, here on Earth, for a few weeks now, but the cloud cover has been incessantly present where I currently live. A few nights ago it finally parted for a bit, but unfortunately the moon just became full and that, despite always being quite enchanting, impairs our visibility of celestial objects. Just yesterday however, early in the evening, the sky was finally perfectly clear and the moon wasn’t up yet, so I had about an hour-long window and I knew that was my chance to search the sky and try to find and capture the Green Comet before it’s gone for another.. what? only like fifty thousand years, so yeah..

I’m so grateful for that moment of clear skies before moonrise, especially since today we’re back to being wrapped up in clouds.

Unfortunately I don't own a telephoto lens or a telescope that you could connect to your camera (one day for sure, though!), so the images are hardly like what real astro photographers can take nowadays, but hey, the fact that I go to see it at all is absolutely fantastic and more than enough:)

I managed to shoot a short time lapse (I'd like to share in a video at some point) but for now, here are a couple of stills from last night:

sometimes when the clouds are very thin like that they distort the view a little bit, but in certain cases that distortion can illuminate the light emitted or reflected by celestial bodies and therefore make them appear slightly larger- just compare this picture with the one below and you'll see what I mean.

Mars, Auriga, Taurus & the Green Comet

It’s far from perfect, as I wasn't able to get away from the light pollution, but it’s still pretty good considering it’s a suburban back-yard shot:)

the Green Comet was visible between the Auriga and Taurus constellations, Mars also happened to be nearby that night

this was one of my test shots, you can't see the comet here, but I just love hoe the clouds seem to be gently falling dawn over the Pleiades