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Miska Saarikko
Stockholm, Sweden
07/09/2020
02:05 am

Equipment Details:

Nikon Z6 + Nikon 24-70/2.8G ED at 70 mm, f/5.6, 1.3s, ISO 100

Post-processing Details:

Slight enhancements in Photoshop CC to push out the details

Image Details:

I did some hard research on how and when to capture the C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) comet from my location. I sat and stared at the sky which had heavy dark clouds covering most of it, but then I saw a huge piece move away towards East so I kept waiting and waiting until I could see Capella appear. Further more the Menkalinan appeared as well and then the massive cloud spread away and I started to photograph the sky, leaning out through my bedroom window (5th floor, with an altitude of ca 55 metres above sea level).
I took a few test shots to see if I were able to find it with the digital zoom feature in the view image mode, and once I did I hopped of joy because this is my first astroshot for this year due to the pandemic and lockdowns everywhere. As a bonus I managed to get Noctilucent clouds along with the comet, which lit the entire sky after 80% of the clouds cleared away from the sky. So I took multiple shots of the comet both with this lens as well as with my monstrous 200-500/5.6E ED VR lens.
Due to the lack of having a tracker and the possibility to use proper gear, I'm quite satisfied with the results of having simple equipment.
The framed box shows the 100% crop from the 24.3 MP (6048x4024 px) image, while the whole image is resized to 1500x998 px.