Observation Log: C/2020 F3 Neowise comet

Date- 20 July 2020
Time- 20:30 hrs- 20:40 hrs
Location- Sirohi, Rajasthan
50 x 20 Binocular and 90 mm x 25 mm Refractor
Conditions - Partly clouded
Object- C/2020 F3 Neowise comet

Finally seen comet Neowise after chasing it for almost fifteen days. Chasing comet is a different kind of thrill. They are swift and ghostly objects in the sky. You miss them by a day or two they will be in different direction of sky. So you also need to be very fast. This comet appeared in the morning sky early of this month. July is the monsoon month in India and sky can remain overcast for months. But hope is the only key and one can hope that clouds will get apart and  comet will reveal itself to you. Its a fantasy that every astronomer have on cloudy days. 

Sketch of Neowise by me on 20 July 2020 From Sirohi, Rajasthan. Comet was near to theta Ursa Majoris.

I spent a week to see this comet in early hours of morning. But clouds can make you feel fool. For two days entire sky was clear and clouds only gathered in the area where exactly comet was. On those days I observed  moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars very clearly. Then comet moved towards east in the sky surpassing the sun and appeared in the evening sky. Again, with full of hope, I started digging in evening sky. This time also clouds never disappointed me and appeared exactly in the same location of comet. For next three four days I spiritually continued my search. Meanwhile social media Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were flooded with images of this Comet from worldwide photographers. Those images are really beautiful and tempted me to continuously look for comet. 

Finally on 20th July, evening sky started getting clear at north-west horizon where comet was located. I was hoping that it will stay clear till twilight get over. Nowadays in summer, twilight disappear by 8:15 pm. After 8:15 pm only one can see celestial object in west side. I started looking for comet. I  was searching that area for 5 minutes and then suddenly I located comet. I was jumped with joy and excitement. It was blue hairy hazy object not far that 6 to 7 degrees from Theta Ursa Majoris star. I quickly set up telescope with 25 mm eyepiece. It took time to locate it in telescope. From telescope its tail was not visible properly but its coma were bright blue and hazy.

After Hale-Bopp comet I have seen this comet with tail. I have seen comet Macholz and Catalina but they were just hazy balls without tail. Observing comet with tail is like looking at lion with mane. It will give you goosebumps. These tails are the real attraction of comets. Comets are clumsy fragile objects made up from water, different gaseous and volatile material.When they are far from sun all material remains intact to comet. As they come near to sun, gaseous and volatile material start melting and slipping away from main body of comet. This appear as a tail. Not all comets displays tail as a mentioned like comet Macholz and Catalina they were appeared as a hazy balls in sky.  

I started my interest in astronomy due to comets only. In 1996, my father took me and and my little sister to small hill side, near our home to show this fantastic object.  It was hairy white blue object. Hale-Bopp was the name of that comet. After that comet I started to look up and was amazed with celestial drama. Hale-Bopp was visible to the naked eye for record 18 months from May 1996 and faded to naked eye by December 1997. It was discovered on 23 July 1995 by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp separately. This year 2020 is the 25th anniversary of Hale-Bopp discovery. 

Comet NEOWISE was discovered by a Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space based telescope. This WISE space telescope runs a different project and this comet was discovered under near earth object (NEO) detection project NEOWISE. Hence it named as comet 'Neowise.'

I remember a line from a comet hunter David Levy about comet 'Comets are like cats; they have tails, and they do precisely what they want'. Take it as metaphor, because of their unpredictable nature. When astronomers expect great show from them they just gives fuzz. Sometimes they unexpectedly show a great displays. Astronomers has predicted Neowise will appear in evening sky till October but after July its visibility will gradually decrease to unaided eyes. 

Sketch of Comet Neowise on 21 July 2020 by me from Sirohi Rajasthan. Its position shifted on second day.