- Last weekend, I saw the famous green comet in the night sky far from the city.
- I didn’t plan well in advance, so even with professional advice, it was more difficult than I expected.
- The moon was brighter than most stars, and even with binoculars I couldn’t find a faint comet.
Only a small fraction of the population will see the green comet scream past Earth this month. I tried to be one of them, but it was more difficult than I expected.
We’ve heard (and written) a lot of hype about this comet, called C/2022 E3 (ZTF), Comet ZTF for short. Frozen masses of gas and dust have returned for the first time since the last Ice Age. This weekend we are zooming past Mars. This is the last good chance to find it before he fades into the distance for another 50,000 years.
I had already been camping in the Pinnacles National Park last weekend, so I thought I’d spot some rare celestial visitors for myself.
The Pinnacles isn’t a formal stargazing sanctuary, but it’s just hours away from big cities like San Jose and San Francisco, and you’ll usually find plenty of stargazing among the volcanic cliffs.
I thought I had a lot of chances. Maybe that was my first mistake.
The Pinnacles National Park is full of volcanic rocks.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
Having never tried to find a specific object in the night sky before, I reached out to California astrophotographer Dan Bartlett for advice. He takes beautiful pictures of the comet like this:
Comet ZTF on January 28, 2023.
Dan Bartlett
I knew I couldn’t see anything so clear. He set up a telescope on the mountain to get a view of them. But I wanted to get as close as possible without spending a fortune.
Dan Bartlett’s setup for photographing comets.
Dan Bartlett
“It’s pretty big, almost a quarter of the field of view of binoculars,” Bartlett told me via email.
So I thought I couldn’t miss it.
Binoculars are essential, so I bought them at REI. Following his advice and some astronomy blogs I read online, I chose his $120 pair labeled 8 x 42.
New binoculars from REI.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to find comets. I had hoped to at least see a gritty green glow in the night sky, but I failed miserably.
Finding faint objects in the sky is harder than you think. It’s not something you should do last minute, without planning or experience.
Two things I did right: Dress for the weather and download the star sign app
At least I can congratulate you on staying warm. The forecast called for temperatures down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the Pinnacles, but I was chilly, so I packed a lot of layers, warm hats, socks, and a scarf.
I also got the foot warmers and rechargeable hand warmers I bought for Christmas.
I refuse to have cold feet!
Morgan McFall Johnsen
I also foresaw another problem that drove me to the tent early. I have never found a celestial body other than the Moon and the Big Dipper. To identify good places to look for comets, we need to find Mars and Capella.
Bartlett said Sky Safari is “arguably the best mobile phone app.” So I paid $4.99 to download it. The app used GPS to label constellations, planets, and stars while moving your phone’s camera through the sky.
A screenshot of the app showing the locations of Mars and Capella.
sky safari
It helped me find Mars quickly.The orange glow was a dead giveaway, but it took me longer to scan the sky myself.Without Sky Safari, I wouldn’t have found Capella. It must have been.
Mistake #1: Choosing a Night with a Bright Moon
I thought I would have to get up before dawn to avoid the moon, but it turned out to be in the sky until nearly 7am on Friday night. .
I’m not a morning person and especially hate getting up in front of the sun, so this seemed like good news. However, it would have been better to get up early due to the moonless dawn.
“The moon will be very bright and interfering. There is no way around this,” Bartlett said. “It’s as if you decided to see the comet from a medium-sized city.”
It wasn’t a full moon, like in this photo from Lake Louise, Canada, but it was pretty close.
Andy Clark/Reuters
he was more right than i thought.
Forget comets. There weren’t many visible stars. It was as if we never left the city. I adjusted my eyes for 15 minutes with the moon on my back and couldn’t see much. Every time I glanced at the moon my eyes reset and I had to adjust again.
Thin clouds floating across the sky probably made it worse.
Partially cloudy weather may have also helped thwart my attempts to find Comet ZTF.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
Mistake #2: Not rehearsing before the internet went down
That night, comet ZTF was supposed to be 5 degrees north of the star Capella, which can be found by first locating Mars. Locating Capela and looking north of it was easy. But what does 5th mean?
I realized too late that I hadn’t remembered and written it down. Pinnacles didn’t have a service so I couldn’t google it. I knew the rough area where the comet should be, but I didn’t know how big or small that area was. So I scanned extensively around the Capella in hopes of hitting the jackpot.
I saw many satellites and planes, but no comets.
I stood with my neck outstretched and looked at the stars from the ground and posed next to the campfire to take this photo.
Courtesy of Arden Wells
One of the people camping with me said he heard the comet was between the Big Dipper and the Big Dipper. It’s a huge space and I couldn’t verify her facts without the internet, but I tracked down what Bartlett told me.
That helped me pinpoint what was wrong.The space between the Big Dipper and Capella passed through a large ring of light surrounding the moon.No stars were visible in that bright ring. bottom.
As the night wore on, I began to lose hope. At one point, a campmate of mine noted that a plane had flown past the moon, leaving a trail of condensation in its wake. They joked it was a comet.
We joked that this plane and its condensation tracks were comets.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
I took a picture so there was at least something to show my efforts. Don’t get too excited about the green spots in the photo. This is nothing more than a glitch in your phone’s camera.
Mistake #3: I thought my binoculars could take pictures with my phone
I tried to replicate a photo strategy I saw in a binoculars review, but it didn’t work.
Courtesy of Arden Wells
Even without the comet, I enjoyed seeing the stars clearly resolved through the binoculars. I wanted to share this view, and I had seen reviews online of binoculars taking pictures with a phone camera held up to the lens.
I also tried to do the same, but all my pictures looked like this.
Through my binoculars, my phone was unable to capture anything.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
I couldn’t see any stars. Taking pictures directly from the sky (without binoculars) yielded slightly better results.
Pictures taken directly from the sky show some stars.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
If I had found a green comet, I wouldn’t have caught it on my iPhone X.
The next morning, in daylight, I tried this technique again with a more defined subject: hillside trees. It still didn’t work.
I do not recommend approaching phone photography through binoculars.
Morgan McFall Johnsen
After thoroughly groping an attempt at amateur astronomy, I have even more respect for the planning, calculations, and perseverance that goes into it.
Perhaps I was looking straight at the green comet, but it was too dim to recognize. But the next time I go stargazing, I will prepare a lot more. Preferably bring in someone who knows what they are doing.