Sighting from La Palma

Forums Comets C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) Sighting from La Palma

#582900
Dr Paul Leyland
Participant

Now that I´m back in Tacande I’ve been able to see the comet for the first time. In the UK I had an obstructed northern sky which is brightly lit by Cambridge city. Here (at latitude 28 degrees north) UMa sets behind the mountains around midnight or so but was well above the horizon at about 2100 local time (circa 18:45 UTC).

The comet was an easy naked-eye object. I guesstimated a roughly 3-degree tail when viewed through 7x50B. The sky was slightly hazy so perhaps more could have been seen under ideal conditions.

Far too big for me to photograph much more than the coma, so I won’t even try.