Hi all,
I had my first decent evening for the month on 7/8 July 2020. 2020 F3 had just become circumpolar from my latitude but at 56N it is still very bright even at 00UT. Anyway, a cloud bank situated on the horizon seemed to have the remarkable property of being synchronised with the earths rotation and sat exactly over the comet for two hours before allowing me a brief observing slot!
As the cloud was dancing around I took a few shots through 300mm f4 and 400mm f4 lenses. Being very amateurish and rushed, I didn’t even note the time accurately, all I can say is that it was around 0010UT 8/7/20 very faint to naked eye. Image is a stack of 11 x 1 sec but background was just too bright to get the ion tail. Looked nice in 11×80 binoculars, tail maybe 1/2 to 3/4 degree long to me eyes.
Then the cloud covered it again and resumed its synchronised motion all the way to 03UT! grrrrr…
Sometimes it is really difficult not to take it personally…. ; – )
Might get to see it again next week….
However, as compensation, there were some remarkable NLC that night!
Cheers,
Bill.