I admit it. I still haven’t seen Comet Neowise yet. But I did follow through on my promise last night to figure out how to post a video to YouTube – and I met with success! Thus have I added a new tool to my communication arsenal.
Not to say there aren’t still a few hitches to my giddyap. For instance, the video that accompanies the sounds (which are really what I wanted to share) is sideways. I tried a bunch of times to edit it this afternoon, but I got frustrated and decided to call it a win – albeit partial.
I’m thinking I may need to edit the video on my phone before uploading it. I thought I’d be able to edit it once it ‘up,’ but that seems not to be the case. I may or may not monkey with it a little more. For now, I’m just psyched you can hear the wild ones from last night.
But the upshot here is: try this link! See if I succeeded in uploading the video and whether you can hear the coyotes serenading the comet.
One Other Thing
It’s July 15, 2020. I’m finding it difficult to wrap my head around that fact, which is why I’m mentioning it here. I have a feeling I’m not alone in this surreal limbo we’re calling life.
I just want to tell all of you taking the time to read my posts, whether you do every day or just randomly, how much I appreciate you.
While I know I read far too much on my phone and laptop (meaning the incessant cascade of articles, etc., that bombard us every day), I find myself having little patience with those items. It’s easy to click on and even easier to click off.
So if you stick with me and read my posts, thank you. That simple act helps me feel like I’m not alone in this craziness. It really is true: we’re all in this together, and supporting each other matters.
Searching for the Comet 14 July 2020 – Photo: L. Weikel
No Comet Tonight
I’m thinking we were a tad impatient this evening. Perhaps we went looking (and gave up) a bit too early. Or maybe we were actually too late! Whatever it was, the verdict is in: no comet tonight.
I didn’t think so at the time, obviously, or we would’ve waited another 30 minutes or half an hour. It’s only in retrospect, as I look at the photo from Minnesota (at the top of last night’s post) that I’m thinking we went too early. Yeah, the sky in that photo looks a bit more ‘evening-mature’ than the photo at the top of this post.
Then again, I just re-read the article from earthsky.org and I realize it says the comet will appear higher in the evening sky each night between the 13th and the 19th. Hmm. I do believe I’ll give it another go tomorrow night.
Runner-up Bonus
But I have to tell you: we were rewarded with the most amazing gift tonight, which we wouldn’t have experienced had we not been out searching for Comet Neowise.
Alas, I can’t share the bonus with you (tonight, anyway) because I don’t have a clue how to upload a video I’ve taken onto YouTube. But I’m going to figure it out, and I’m going to post this recording because WOW. I had no idea we had a pack of coyotes living so close to us!
They serenaded us with such a cacophony of yips and howls, we almost thought we’d been transported to New Mexico. We couldn’t believe our ears!
We’ve heard the occasional yip or howl at night, but definitely never the joyously raucous sounds of a pack like tonight.
Always a Treat
Which reminds me: A few years ago we took a walk and left our main front door open. Of course, the wooden screen door was closed and locked, but that obviously didn’t hinder the aroma of stew I’d left simmering on our stove from wafting outside.
When we rounded the final corner of our walk-around and could see up the road to our house, we were shocked to see a coyote sitting on its haunches, directly in front of our home. It was just sitting there at the edge of the road, right beside our mailbox, looking ever so much like a ‘good boy,’ waiting patiently for a bowl of whatever yummy stuff it could smell we were cooking.
Amazing. And what a gift.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll both see the comet and hear the coyotes again. That would be better than any tv lineup.
For all the grief we’re attributing to the year 2020, what with Covid-19, murder wasps, the Bubonic Plague, disastrous unemployment, unprecedented losses of small businesses, and 16,000 other awful things I’m not recalling at the moment, there are a couple bright spots. One of them is C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), or more commonly known as Comet Neowise.
Yeah, this baby looks like what we all hoped and expected Halley’s Comet to look like when it finally showed up. From the photos I’ve seen, Neowise is spectacular in its split tail and brilliance. In many ways, the photos of it remind me of how, as a child, I imagined the Star of Bethlehem must have looked to the three wise men.
As I was searching for a unique photo of the comet to use for this post that’s not the same as the gorgeous ones I’ve seen on Facebook (over Glastonbury Tor, for instance), I came across the one above by Bob King in Duluth, Minnesota. Two things about this link: first of all, the photo is of the comet in the evening! That was just taken tonight.
I just love how Mr. King managed to capture the comet not only directly in the sky overhead but also exquisitely reflected in the lake below. What a wonderful shot!
Morning or Evening?
I’m pretty sure that most, if not all, of the photos that have been showing up so far have been taken in the wee hours of the morning of the particular locality. In fact, I think we should be able to see it one more time, at least, in the hour or two before sunrise – either ‘tonight’ (depending on when you go to sleep) or tomorrow.
By my calculations, at least if I use this article’s timing, I should be going to my prime viewing spot at around 3:51 a.m. Yeesh. That’s asking a lot, Mother Nature! (I arrived at that ‘start time’ be calculating an hour and 50 minutes before sunrise.)
Yes, I am usually awake until at least 2:00 a.m. every night (or morning, if you want to get technical about it). But staying up that extra two hours, while probably fairly easy for me to do by simply giving myself permission to binge-read my latest book, will almost certainly result in feeling as though I’m missing a half a beat most of the day tomorrow.
So I’m psyched to learn that there could very well be a fairly good opportunity to see Comet Neowise in the evening sky, about an hour after sunset, starting tomorrow. Heck – with it being so hot lately, we’ve been walking more in the early evening hours anyway, so this wouldn’t be a stretch for us at all.
near Sursee, Switzerland – July 7, 2020
Wonderfully Precise Instructions
But as great as the photo by Bob King is, it’s also accompanied by a wonderful article describing in great detail the best ways to locate the comet in the evening sky. I feel like the specificity in this article should give any of us who really want to see this comet (and are blessed with clear skies and an obstruction-free and somewhat light pollution-less view) a decent chance of success.
So here you go. If you’re into it, I hope you meet with success in witnessing this celestial phenomenon, which is only visible to us every 6,766 years or so.
July 7, 2020 (photographer unknown)
On the off chance I wake up two hours before the crack of dawn’s early light (you know, three hours from now), I may give it a shot. More likely, though, I’m going to pin my hopes on an evening score.
As you know from my numerous posts about an assortment of meteor showers and even another comet or two, I love this stuff. And I miss my boys, who so very often were game to indulge their mother’s crazy excitement at witnessing celestial events that often sounded much better than they ended up being.
What’s In a Name?
But don’t you just love the name of this comet, too? Neowise? I know it’s named after the space telescope that discovered it on March 27th. March 27th! Of 2020! Nevertheless, it feels like the synchronicity of its name might just be an offering of the tiniest glimmer of hope for humanity: perhaps this comet will usher in an era of “new wisdom.”
