Tag: Comets

Whatever Weds. Comet Lemmon

Posted in Astrophotography, Comets, Night Sky, Starry Night, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , 48 Comments

Copyright ©2025 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I went out with a friend to try to see if I could find and photograph C/2025 A6 Comet (Lemmon) on October 19th. I didn’t go too far from home just up into the Pinenut Mountains a little bit. l took my 50mm lens so I would be able to see a wide space of the sky and hopefully see it. I never saw it with my eyes or binoculars, but when I got home and uploaded my images I was happy to see my camera had seen it. It’s the tiny green dot upper center of the image.

It’s tiny at 50mm but, I cropped this in a bit for a better look.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Comet Lemmon Nikon D850| Nikkor 50mm

The next night I went back to the same spot with my old 80-200mm lens but, I wasn’t able to see it at all. I believe it was too low and behind the hills opposite.

So last night a friend and I went north to a spot I know that had more open sky. It took us a while to find it but, we did. My old lens had a bit of trouble focusing on my newish bigger sensor D810 but, once I uploaded my images I found I had several decent shots of the comet with a hint of its tail too.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Comet Lemmon| Nikon D810| Nikkor 80-200mmD| October 21, 2025

It’s always exciting to see a comet and this one is pretty cool. It was 55 million miles from Earth last night and it won’t be back again until the year 3175! Do you think my images will survive for my future family members to see my images made with probably antiquated photography methods and gear? Somewhere between 33 and 46 generations will pass before C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) comes our way again. It boggles my mind.

Did you see it?

more to come…

Whatever Weds- The Stars have It

Posted in Comets, Photography, Stars, Stars and Planets, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 47 Comments

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week He-Man and I had a little get-away for our 43rd anniversary. We didn’t go too far just up to Sparks, NV.

We booked a balcony suite at Hampton Inn & Suites at the marina for the view of Helms Lake, and view of Reno’s skyline. This lake has an interesting beginning.

“The site was once a gravel pit owned by the Helms Construction Corp. (1968-1995) The pit is 100 feet deep. They found petroleum and solvent contamination seeping into the pit in 1987 so it was declared a Super Toxic Sight and clean up began. In 1996 it was declared free of petrochemicals and the site was turned over to the city of Sparks.

Millions of dollars of spill mitigation money was made available to the city, which they used to construct the park and make the pit a recreational pond. They had planned to fill the pit to 30 feet, but in January 1997 the Truckee River overflowed its banks and filled the Helms Pit creating what is now Richard Helms Lake or Sparks Marina Pond.” You can read a little more about how it stays filled at the link. https://www.ndow.org/waters/sparks-marina/

Now for our view-

Our day-time balcony view

It was pretty windy the day we were up there as you can see by the water.

Our Evening View

We both really enjoyed having this evening view when the lights in the city came on.

I had hoped our 4th floor balcony room would afford a great view of the sky so I could also try to photograph Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but alas we had a storm rolling in and cloud cover.

Finally, Monday night April 1st…no joke! We had a clear night so I went out to my front yard and spied the Comet.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with faint tail.
Green Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks cropped in.
Dialing in my focus I got Jupiter and her Moons too.

We had a lovely anniversary walking around the lake both days, and we found a new Indian place we liked a lot for dinner so, we’ll make the drive up for that again when we’re craving Indian food, and we’ll be staying there again when the weather is warmer and we’ll take our kayak up for a paddle around the lake.

I hope the stars have lined up a fantastic week for you.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 80-200mm| iPhone 14 Pro| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds.- O’Dark Thirty

Posted in Astro Photography, Low Light Photography, Nikon, Photography, Whatever Wednesday, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged , , , , , , , 37 Comments

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Did you hear about the new Comet that was discovered in March of this year? It’s called C/2020 F3 “Neowise”.  Some…okay a lot of astronomers thought it would be burned up when it made its close encounter to the Sun, but a few thought it would make it past that, and we who were paying attention held our breath and waited and watched…

It made it past the sun! Two Comets I was watching this year didn’t make it past their close encounter with the Sun so this is huge!

On July 10th I rose at an UnGodly hour 4:00 A.M. brushed my teeth put on some pants and shoes and grabbed my gear then headed out not too far from home on foot to see if I could see this new Comet C/2020 F3 “Neowise”.  I did not see it.  I knew where to look so made 13 images around the area hoping my camera could see what I could not.  IT DID NOT.  I was too late. The Sun’s light was already hiding the Comet. I needed to get up earlier.

July 11th. I rose at 3:15am put some pants on, brushed my teeth, put on my shoes, and grabbed my gear bag and headed out the door on foot to my spot.  My compass for the morning was Venus with Alderan under it and Capella off to the north of Venus. They would guide me to Comet C/2020 F3 ” Neowise”.  I also took my binoculars just in case I couldn’t spot with my eyes.  I located Capella with my binocs and began scanning the area below it where I knew the comet would be.  THERE IT WAS! I did a little happy dance I won’t lie!  There’s just something about the stars, planets, and comets that excites me.

I set up my camera and dialed in my exposer and hoped I was in focus. Focusing in the dark isn’t always easy.

Here’s my best frame from the morning.

Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 7.11.2020

As I was shooting there was a pack of Coyotes singing their song just up the trail and behind me just far enough away to keep me looking to my right. Greeting the morning or healding their catch of the night I don’t know, but they stirred up all the coyotes in the valley and kept me watching my right.

When I walked up the path toward the fence I needed to hop to get home I kept looking over my shoulder making sure the Coyotes weren’t following me!  They’re sneaky those coyotes. In my head, I had this song. It’s my favorite Coyote song evah. And they go…

Who yip , who yip, who…

 

Nikon D810| Nikkor 180mm F/2.8| CS PP 21.2

 

more to come…