15 July 2020

actually saw NEOWISE Tuesday night

Waited until after twilight passed and took the dog for our after dinner stroll. We rode the elevator up to the top of a parking garage since it's probably the highest place I have access to and mostly gets me above the trees. The dog didn't care much for the elevator ride but that's probably because it was his first time. We had to maneuver around someone sleeping in whatever you would call the glass enclosure that protects the elevators. Didn't have any luck up finding the comet up there - might have been because I didn't know exactly where to look, but there was also a lot of light pollution between streetlights and the lights on the top of the parking structure.

A couple blocks to the north is a school with a couple blocks of sports fields. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile, but as we approached I saw a guy on the south side with two tripods set up. Bingo! It was pretty hard to pick out initially, but I saw what looked like a long, faint smudge, so I asked if I was looking in the right place. I was. He invited me to look through his binoculars and he showed a couple pix he'd grabbed. It was pretty cool and I'm glad I was able to see it.

We returned by the school nearest home but the view wasn't as good. Might have seen it there too, but it was really faint.

I really, really wish I had a place to go where I could enjoy the night sky. Can only see the brightest objects (like the big dipper or Jupiter or the ISS) from around here. If I wanted, I could walk for an hour or so ...

But then there's the walk back and it would be pretty late. Also, local highways lack sidewalks (even in the city). Gotta love ODOT.

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