When news and photos of comet NEOWISE hit the internet this summer, I wanted nothing more than to see it. The hardest part about living in the northeast with these things is there are almost always clouds around and the weather makes things difficult. With the comet visible first just before dawn, getting up and into position early enough was tough. We did one sunrise hike, but hit the summit just after the light became too bright. We couldn’t find the comet, even with binoculars, and even finding it in the photos after wasn’t easy. Hint: Left side of image (the “star” you can see in the upper right is Venus).
The following week, NEOWISE was supposed to be visible after sunset, and staying up later seemed easier than an alpine start. Ted kept a close eye on the forecast and seemed to be constantly giving me the sad news: No NEOWISE tonight. Clouds, clouds, clouds. Then, finally, Friday afternoon, Ted gave the green-light for a micro adventure to see this comet. With sunset being late enough, we were able to hit the road immediately after work and drove into Whitehall, NY. We hiked up to the summit of Black Mountain as the day hikers were heading out, and we turned on our headlamps as the sun went down. There was only one family on the summit, who hung out for a while, painted light on the trees around us, and headed down to their campsite once they’d seen the comet. We stayed for a while after they left, eating ice cream from my Thermos, enjoying the nighttime view.
A few days later, the sky was clear again, and off we went. We had scoped out earlier in the week a few places that might have a northwest view and an open enough sky so that we could see the comet without needing to drive or hike far. One of these spots looked like it would be perfect, but the night we were there, the clouds were just too widespread to get any eye on the comet to confirm. When we returned on a clearer night, we discovered we were right. We had a wide-open view and front row seats, with frogs croaking and chirping all around us. The only downside… mosquitoes. I wore rain pants and my hard shell, which would have looked silly had anyone seen us on such a warm night, but at least I wasn’t getting eaten alive.
In the days that followed, NEOWISE began to fade, so the thrill of scouting viewing spots and getting into position to photograph it lessened as well. It was at this point, that Ted went outside one night with curiosity and his binoculars, and discovered we could have seen the comet all along, right above our neighbor’s house.