On the night of July 19th, 2020 we set out with the intention of getting some photographs of C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), otherwise known as Comet NEOWISE. The comet had been lighting up both the northern sky, and social media, for weeks and I wanted my own little piece of it.

We set out just before sunset, driving around for a while to pick out a spot. For the entirety of the drive the whole of the northern horizon was obscured by a wall of haze and clouds that threatened to blot out any hope we had of seeing the comet.

Eventually we settled on a dirt patch along a very rural road, and set up to take pictures of the storms brewing to the north and to the east, hoping that maybe the clouds would clear enough to catch a glimpse of the comet.

After sitting still for a while we finally managed to pin down the location of the celestial phenomenon (which was pretty lucky given the haze, and how much less visible it was than I expected) and I snapped a few shots.

While they might not be much photographically, they’re still absolutely that little piece of science and history I was hoping to capture and freeze, and so I’m sharing them here.