Starlog July 22nd, 2020, 9:54 p.m. local time
This one was from almost a week ago now. Comet C/2020 A3 had risen sufficiently high enough that I was able to photograph it from the relative darkness of my backyard. If you follow The Big Dipper’s middle part of the handle straight down, you can barely see Neowise above two stars near the bottom. This picture was taken with my iPhone and NightCap, on a tripod.
It was, sadly, the last night I was able to clearly see the tail. As I watched it through my binoculars, I felt a sense of loss, that soon, this comet would never be seen by me or anyone else again for thousands of years, unless a means to travel the Solar System is developed before it arrives again. To give perspective, assume very roughly that the last time this comet was in Earth’s vicinity was around 4000 B.C. Any semblance of civilization was in Sumeria. The great Egyptian kingdoms were still about a millennium away. Writing had yet to be developed. The chronology of The Bible had barely begun. Perhaps the Sumerians or tribes of the settled world saw Neowise and took it as a great sign from their gods.
When the comet returns, millennia from now, I wonder how the inhabitants of Earth will see it.
