by Tom Pennino

After hearing members speak at the ASLI meeting Wednesday night, July 15, I realized that only Bill Bradley was able to view the Comet both during its AM apparition, and then during its PM apparition.  Bill commented that the AM view on Sunday morning far exceeded the twilight view he got of the Comet, along with Karl, from Robert Moses State Park.  So I decided to skip out of this meeting at 9 PM, and head on up to Sunken Meadow & experience the different views for myself. Only a 10 minute ride for me, I arrived at the main pavilion at 9:30, and was surprised at so many Comet enthusiasts lined up on the boardwalk, attempting to get a view (and a photo) of our celestial visitor.  Around 9:40, I noticed a smudge in the NW, and putting my 10X50 binoculars up to my eyes, I confirmed that I had it in sight. NEOWISE was about 17 degrees above the NW horizon, and after 5 more minutes, its two-degree tail became visible naked eye.  NEOWISE rapidly sank during the next 15 minutes, appearing only 10 degrees up by 10 PM.However, due to darkening skies, it remained visible naked eye, with a 2 degree tail pointing up to the NE. As I left the park at 10 PM, it was still visible naked eye from the parking lot.   And just as Bill expressed earlier, this PM viewing was “no where near as brilliant” as what we experienced early Sunday morning.  However, note that as I left, we still had 30 minutes left of astronomical twilight. When we first arrived back on sunday morning, astronomical twilight was just set to begin. So this, along with of course evening lights about during PM viewing, is the main reason for the poorer viewing during PM.  And add the fact that NEOWISE is also dimming, and this is all the more reason for the “less than dramatic views” now, compared to  that we experienced early on sunday. Never the less, with the Comet increasing in elevation each evening, and approaching Earth, just maybe this all will lead to much better sights that NEOWISE will offer against a later, and much darker sky in the coming weeks.  We`ll have to wait and see.

Comet c/2020 (NEOWISE) photographed at 3:30 AM Sunday morning on July 12, 2020. Info: Canon 6D, 105mm lens at f/4, 2 second exposure, ISO 3200

by Karl SilverbergI met up with Steve Bellavia at my Hamptons Dune Rd spot last night (maybe the spot doesn’t belong to me but it feels that way.) Lot of humidity in the air — my SQM was reading a few notches lower than normal — about SQM 20.8 — normally I get about 21.0. The humidity also seemed to decrease the transparency a bit, or maybe it just seemed less transparent because the sky was slightly brighter. I brought out my 14in Dob. Steve brought out his imaging gear. I ran electronic dew heat to my secondary — good thing I had my AP gear with my dew heater, and Steve loaned me a small dew strap. The main object we came to see was Omega Centauri (ω Cen or NGC 5139). Omega Centauri is the largest Globular Cluster in the Milky Way, and is located extremely low at Dec −47° 28′ 46.1″. The giant cluster transited about 11:55pm. We started looking about an hour beforehand in the binoculars — 15×70’s. At about 60min and 30min before transit, despite locating the nearby guidepost star, we could not locate OC (Steve may have had it but it was not prominent). We weren’t sure if the horizon was too hazy to see OC. Then just at about transit, around 11:45pm, I checked again, and sure enough it popped out, right where it was supposed to be. It has about the same brightness as M4, which was visible at that time as well. This is the second year in a row Steve and I caught Omega Centauri, and both times from the Hamptons. Even at its highest Omega Centauri is extremely low in the sky, only rising about 1.75 deg above the horizon.