Comet Neowise

BF Hammer

Senior Member
Hello, I'm a newbie here. I did get out on 3 nights over 1 week. The skies were perfect enough that I could have gone out 5 nights. I tried to do different things each night. Mostly I took 30 or so exposures with each composition to give the option of layer-stacking.

First night, I was learning here. Using a tracking telescope mount and Sigma 150-600mm C lens on my D750.
View attachment 342816View attachment 342817

2nd night: Had failure of my tracking mount, but took a couple with D750 + Sigma 150-600mm again with an added light pollution filter before it went down. This shot is a single exposure.
View attachment 342818

But I had my backup D7000 + Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ready on tripod. I was going to take these shots anyhow.
View attachment 342819View attachment 342820

3rd night, I got more experimental. All D750 using 24-120mm f/4 and Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art. The tracking mount was repaired and ready.
tlEBm7c.jpgART3Zc4.jpg

I verified this on Heavens-Above, this was the 2nd stage of the Crew Dragon Demo 2 Falcon9 rocket photobombing me.
gKy3Eq5.jpg

Change to 20mm f/1.4
DxN0NUN.jpg

Then turn around and right behind me is this. :)
HyP9r92.jpg
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
I spent 3 nights shooting the comet. I could have gone out 5 nights as I was blessed with unusually favorable weather for July.

1st night: D750 + Sigma 150-600mm C lens. Using a Skywatcher AZ-GTi mount to track the comet with 40 second exposures.
zdHahT4.jpgcGx5bpu.jpg

2nd night: I started with same setup, but with a 150mm square light pollution filter attached. Had a mechanical issue with the extra weight on the Skywatcher mount and had to stop. I got 1 exposure worth processing before going to backup plan.
Wm181vk.jpg

Backup plan was D7000 with Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art lens on tripod for landscapes. I was going to do this anyway alongside the tracked telephoto photos.
8FJLanC.jpgNBY4xtk.jpg
y6cHTbW.jpg

3rd night, I had repaired my problem with the tracking mount. I went more experimental. D750 + 24-120mm f/4 with 2 different zoom settings. Then changed to the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art and went to tripod.
tlEBm7c.jpg ART3Zc4.jpg
DxN0NUN.jpg

I was also photobombed by what I later determined was the 2nd stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched Crew Dragon Demo 2 to the ISS. That was an interesting discovery using Heavens-Above website.

gKy3Eq5.jpg CjIkR0r.jpg

And to end the night as the dew started to form, I turned around and shot this.
HyP9r92.jpg
 
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