OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Thanks for all the Comet photos. It makes us realize that there is a lot more out there in the universe besides our little world.

[Guest]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

In Case of Interest...a good cheat sheet for the coming week.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

I went back out last night, this time to Lake Hennessey between St Helena and Pope Valley (on the way out to Lake Berryessa) and came back with a winner...

Nikon D850, Tokina 100mm F2.8 macro, ISO 10K, F3.5, 9.5 seconds. Processed in Lightroom


Will

[Guest]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

I went back out last night, this time to Lake Hennessey between St Helena and Pope Valley (on the way out to Lake Berryessa) and came back with a winner...

Nikon D850, Tokina 100mm F2.8 macro, ISO 10K, F3.5, 9.5 seconds. Processed in Lightroom


Will

Sweet! Well done, Will! Hope to head out tonight east of Temecula, find a ridge and maybe...just maybe...I'll get something remotely close to this. If you don't see me post anything in the next day or two, you'll know I burned a ton of pixels for nothing.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Sweet! Well done, Will! Hope to head out tonight east of Temecula, find a ridge and maybe...just maybe...I'll get something remotely close to this. If you don't see me post anything in the next day or two, you'll know I burned a ton of pixels for nothing.

I wish you luck. I shot about 50 pics last night, this was the only really good one that I got. I'm not sure why as I shot the same settings after seeing this on the back of the camera. I guess conditions were just right for it to work. Its not easy to get a good shot of this thing. You can see the evolution of my shots since I started the thread, but even after shooting the better part of 200 shots, there is only one standout shot. Obviously the darker the sky the better, and I'd have to guess being at a higher elevation would help quite a bit as well.

I'm kinda bummed that we won't have Reno this year as it would be awesome to stage something on the ramp with the comet overhead. (A bit of a mute point since the comet isn't supposed to last that long anyway. Still, the potential for an amazing photo is hard to miss.) I'd say Oshkosh would have made for an amazing opportunity, but I'd bet the atmospheric murk would make it nearly invisible and very hard to frame.

Will

[Plane Nuts]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Will, that is some nice photography. Were the first shots you posted at Alston Park? I live within walking distance from there. Maybe this geezer will get off his ass and go see the comet.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

You guys really make me want to cry!

The beauty you are sharing here is priceless!!!!!


Thank You!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Will, that is some nice photography. Were the first shots you posted at Alston Park? I live within walking distance from there. Maybe this geezer will get off his ass and go see the comet.

The first shots I posted were from the middle of Pope Valley, then a couple from my work (Carneros Inn), then a couple from Manzanita Canyon on the west side of Lake Berryessa, and finally from Lake Hennessey.

You should be able to see it from Alston Park, but there might be too much light pollution. I could see it from my backyard off of Atlas Peak Rd near Silverado Country Club, but it was pretty dim.

Will

[Guest]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

I wish you luck. I shot about 50 pics last night, this was the only really good one that I got. I'm not sure why as I shot the same settings after seeing this on the back of the camera. I guess conditions were just right for it to work. Its not easy to get a good shot of this thing. You can see the evolution of my shots since I started the thread, but even after shooting the better part of 200 shots, there is only one standout shot. Obviously the darker the sky the better, and I'd have to guess being at a higher elevation would help quite a bit as well.

I'm kinda bummed that we won't have Reno this year as it would be awesome to stage something on the ramp with the comet overhead. (A bit of a mute point since the comet isn't supposed to last that long anyway. Still, the potential for an amazing photo is hard to miss.) I'd say Oshkosh would have made for an amazing opportunity, but I'd bet the atmospheric murk would make it nearly invisible and very hard to frame.

Will

Last night was a bust from a photography standpoint but the GF and I shared a nice bottle of wine and spotted NEOWISE with some bino's. Too much local light pollution outside Temecula. And it doesn't help that it's in the NW sky and I'm south of LA so the light polution from LA basin sort of washes out the lower sky up to about 15-20 degrees above the horizon.

I'm thinking about heading out to Lake Hawthorn area this evening. There's an awesome mountain top park near the house here, Double Peak, outside Lake San Marcos. Problem is they lock the park after sunset. Prefer not to spend the night in the Volvo if I can avoid it! Awesome vehicle...just not meant for restful slumber!

[Guest]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Drove out to Lake Henshaw (SE of Mt. Palomar) but had very little time to give it the attention I had hoped.

Haven't processed this much in RAW at all and maybe there's one or two more worthy of some additional effort.

Canon 5D Mk III, Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art lens: 5" @ f2.5, 85mm, ISO3200 @ approx. 2145hrs.

There's just no getting around the glow from LA basin from this location. It really washes out the lower regions of the atmosphere.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Drove out to Lake Henshaw (SE of Mt. Palomar) but had very little time to give it the attention I had hoped.

Haven't processed this much in RAW at all and maybe there's one or two more worthy of some additional effort.

Canon 5D Mk III, Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art lens: 5" @ f2.5, 85mm, ISO3200 @ approx. 2145hrs.

There's just no getting around the glow from LA basin from this location. It really washes out the lower regions of the atmosphere.

If you are editing in Lightroom, here are a couple tricks I've discovered. Obviously use the lens correction tool to start. Then go back up and (assuming you have a version of LR with dehaze...) bump your dehaze up, it will darken the image some, but don't worry too much about that at this point. Then bump your clairity up. (Not too much, but some, I usually limit myself to no more than 25, but sometimes I can go higher.) You can now pull the highlights back a little, and compensate with the shadow and white sliders. If needed add some contrast and adjust your white balance, add your vibrance and saturation and call it good.

Will

[Guest]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

If you are editing in Lightroom, here are a couple tricks I've discovered. Obviously use the lens correction tool to start. Then go back up and (assuming you have a version of LR with dehaze...) bump your dehaze up, it will darken the image some, but don't worry too much about that at this point. Then bump your clairity up. (Not too much, but some, I usually limit myself to no more than 25, but sometimes I can go higher.) You can now pull the highlights back a little, and compensate with the shadow and white sliders. If needed add some contrast and adjust your white balance, add your vibrance and saturation and call it good.

Will

Hi Will,
Thanks for the tips. I don't use Lightroom. And this laptop (it's an new ASUS q325 Notebook) I just use GIMP and Dark Table. My processing laptop (Toshiba Qosmio x505) I use the Affinty Pro product. For a while I was getting pretty adept at processing RAW in Affinity but it's been quite some time since I got into it in detail but it's like riding a bike in many respects.

Processing in RAW in Affinity is much the same as you point out. At times, while following all the guidelines, I look at where I am and think, Holy Crap! This is going south in a hurry! But it works out in the end.

Wish I could have spent more time at Henshaw and had more time to manipulate. Perhaps I'll get busy again in Affinity soon. Been several months since I really hunkered down and purposefully shot a subject and spent the time necessary in front of the monitor.

Cheers, Will. Appreciate you sharing your work and your work methods. Never stop learning...

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Now officially on topic...

I was trying to come up with a cool subject to frame the comet with and it dawned on me that I haven't seen any warbirds posed with the comet. What could be cooler than say, a P51 under the comet? How about a night run of a P-51 under the comet? Yeah, that could be cool. Hmm, there is only one P51 owner that I sort of know locally who I could ask. So, I sent Brant a message and he was interested in doing the shoot, but there was a problem. Blondie was apart for its annual, and the comet is fading fast. Brant was game, so he got to work and buttoned everything up yesterday afternoon. We had a look around Nut Tree to see where it would work best, and decided on the south end runup area (no longer used now.) So, about 8:30 last night we got the plane staged and then waited for the sun to go down. I invited Dave Horn to come out since he was a local Reno photographer as well, and, well, we need all the Reno related material we can get this year so the more the merrier.

The comet wasn't that impressive, but its there (in the prop blur) The exhaust flames look pretty sweet and sort of make up for the lack of comet brilliance. I was a week late in setting this up as the comet is fading fast and was very hard to see last night, especially with the atmospheric conditions and light pollution.

At first I wasn't sure if I could even pull this idea off at all due to the location of the comet being very high in the sky. As the night wore on, the comet came down, and though I couldn't see it with the naked eye, the camera still could. It took some guesswork and improvisation to get the comet. (Yes I had to help the tail along in lightroom to get it to look like anything more than a smudge, I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with how I processed it)


Will

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Yes on topic. Great shot and an "A" for that one. At 88 I could make it out thru prop blur even after a cold one.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: OT: Comet NEOWISE the first visible to the naked eye comet since 1996

Yes on topic. Great shot and an "A" for that one. At 88 I could make it out thru prop blur even after a cold one.

I'll be honest, I had to enhance the comet to make it stand out. The adjustment would be very obvious if I were to print that image in large size.

Another shot to go with it. No comet, but nice blue flame.


Will