After drinking too much coffee with my sister, and unable to sleep, I peeked out the door to see if the clouds had cleared at all to give me a shot at the recently discovered comet Neowise. With mostly clear skies, I ventured out with my antique 50mm manual lens.

My first stop was to the light pole to shut off the yard light. Again, I am so thankful that hubby had a switch installed so I can shut it off. Big Dipper on the left and Milky Way on the right. Looked at the shot and thought what is that whitish glow above the building?

Oh yes! Comet Neowise is visible to the naked eye and the magenta and green aurora borealis is dancing tonight. The colour I get from this antique glass is phenomenal!

The nifty fifty focuses easily on infinity but closer objects are out of its range of depth of field. Why didn’t I bring the 11-20mm lens? But look at the double tail of the comet!

My favourite of the night! Double tail comet Neowise with a shooting star at the tip of her tail. I saw a few of the Delta Aquarids and was fortunate to have my shutter open for this one.

I finally trekked back for the 11-20. This has the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, Polaris with Comet Neowise and colourful Aurora Borealis peeking from behind the clouds.

Clouds rolled over the comet. Don’t forget to turn around! The galactic centre of the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn grace the southern sky! Again I am thankful to live in such dark sky.

The grain bin silhouette contrasts with the galactic core. The satellite on the right side reminds me of our increasing presence in the night sky. If I get another chance, I will track the next shots. Ok, 2am, maybe I can sleep now.

UPDATE: July 31, 2020

It has been a busy week, and I finally got these shots from my camera. These last two are my favourites, taken in the Avonlea Badlands last Friday/Saturday night (July 24). I had to climb a hill for the height advantage.

By placing the camera right on the ground, low level light pollution is virtually eliminated, it shows the texture of the pebbles and the hoodoo highlights this area of unflat Saskatchewan. I have always found celestial images over earth more pleasing than ones over man-made objects.