The thin blue tail is the ion tail that aligns with the interplanetary magnetic field while the broad white tail is the dust tail and points radially from the sun
For a first time out you were well prepared. Spotting you did great. For ease of composition with astro Milky Way and the comet, that is to use a camera with "Bright Monitoring" the camera scans the sensor at a faster rate making it like night vision, the Sony A7's mark ii and above have this selection (look just info). I have a lot of apps to indicate location and bearing BUT like my 2014 days with the A7s test shots work also, I used the 24-240 lens 24mm to find then played with different mm's. To maintain no star trailing or lens comas (yours are very good) an app called PhotoPills has a section "Spot Stars" you input your camera model then mm then aperture you get a default and accurate SS, exp. A7iii 16mm f/4 def.18.84s acc 9.42s. The 500 or 400 rules are for the film days today you have Camera makers and their sensors, pixels, pixel height, pixel separation and sensor size!!! A Lot of MATH to do out in the field or pre plan with a chosen lens. To truly test a lens on a camera use the accurate and pixel peepers no problems. I admire your fast glass But you will find you will be shooting at f/2 to f/2.8 due to lens coma's (doves in the corners) and softness or vignetting (shadows in the corners [with color noise]). Like this one reviewer shooting the MW on a beach had to take two shots one for the sky another for the driftwood that was out of focus (shot at f/2.8) then blended (fast glass has bokeh, softness up close). All I am saying save your $$$$'s the sweet spot is f/2.8. Also today cities are using LED bright white lights, so you have to save highlights for clarity so low ISO of 800 but you will also have to increase f/# for highlight saving, so still a reason to save $$$. Yes faster is brighter but in post shadows today can be brought out and noise well PS/Lr but add Topaz Denoise and image size not 100MP use Topaz Megapixel and get that huge wall print (like the printers do not do it anyway). Also those new night vision binoculars are real handy for composing before test shots. Have fun for it is great to explore but at night take a friend or two who can watch out for 4 and 2 legged critters also a bear horn and spray!!! Also learn to stay till morning the sunrises are great and critters come out to eat make it a twofer or threefer night. Oh! Skin-So-Soft lotion/oil for the flying bugs and Vicks on the legs for red bugs and snake boots (they are waterproof).
Thanks for the great tips! Cameras with that live view boost mode are extremely helpful for star photography. Wish more companies implemented something like that. You make a good point about lens aperture here - that, at a certain point, ultra large apertures aren’t even ideal for nighttime landscape photography, because too much of the land will be out of focus. I sometimes use smaller apertures instead these days (at higher ISOs), take a series of shots, and do the stacking technique in this video. It obviously relies on the stacking process working out, but it gives pretty good results overall.
Beautiful captures, Spencer. Thank you for the show. It's interesting how the reflections of the stars in the lake are more brilliant than the sky shot.
I love the pictures, looks super cool! And I can relate to staying up until morning to edit shots :D From where I currently live it's hard to get to a location with minimal light pollution, sadly.
Thank you! Photographers are no strangers to working at odd hours. Sorry that you’re not able to see this comet in person. There will certainly be more!
Neowise will be on the app for the next time.
Unbelievable how much easier my great-great-(x200)-great-grandchildren’s lives will be
The thin blue tail is the ion tail that aligns with the interplanetary magnetic field while the broad white tail is the dust tail and points radially from the sun
That’s brilliant, thanks for the explanation behind it!
For a first time out you were well prepared. Spotting you did great. For ease of composition with astro Milky Way and the comet, that is to use a camera with "Bright Monitoring" the camera scans the sensor at a faster rate making it like night vision, the Sony A7's mark ii and above have this selection (look just info). I have a lot of apps to indicate location and bearing BUT like my 2014 days with the A7s test shots work also, I used the 24-240 lens 24mm to find then played with different mm's. To maintain no star trailing or lens comas (yours are very good) an app called PhotoPills has a section "Spot Stars" you input your camera model then mm then aperture you get a default and accurate SS, exp. A7iii 16mm f/4 def.18.84s acc 9.42s. The 500 or 400 rules are for the film days today you have Camera makers and their sensors, pixels, pixel height, pixel separation and sensor size!!! A Lot of MATH to do out in the field or pre plan with a chosen lens. To truly test a lens on a camera use the accurate and pixel peepers no problems. I admire your fast glass But you will find you will be shooting at f/2 to f/2.8 due to lens coma's (doves in the corners) and softness or vignetting (shadows in the corners [with color noise]). Like this one reviewer shooting the MW on a beach had to take two shots one for the sky another for the driftwood that was out of focus (shot at f/2.8) then blended (fast glass has bokeh, softness up close). All I am saying save your $$$$'s the sweet spot is f/2.8. Also today cities are using LED bright white lights, so you have to save highlights for clarity so low ISO of 800 but you will also have to increase f/# for highlight saving, so still a reason to save $$$. Yes faster is brighter but in post shadows today can be brought out and noise well PS/Lr but add Topaz Denoise and image size not 100MP use Topaz Megapixel and get that huge wall print (like the printers do not do it anyway). Also those new night vision binoculars are real handy for composing before test shots.
Have fun for it is great to explore but at night take a friend or two who can watch out for 4 and 2 legged critters also a bear horn and spray!!! Also learn to stay till morning the sunrises are great and critters come out to eat make it a twofer or threefer night. Oh! Skin-So-Soft lotion/oil for the flying bugs and Vicks on the legs for red bugs and snake boots (they are waterproof).
Thanks for the great tips! Cameras with that live view boost mode are extremely helpful for star photography. Wish more companies implemented something like that. You make a good point about lens aperture here - that, at a certain point, ultra large apertures aren’t even ideal for nighttime landscape photography, because too much of the land will be out of focus. I sometimes use smaller apertures instead these days (at higher ISOs), take a series of shots, and do the stacking technique in this video. It obviously relies on the stacking process working out, but it gives pretty good results overall.
I love your enthusiasm and your explanations.
Happy to hear it, thank you!
Great pictures of the comet Spencer, I'm a CO local as well and believe that mountain under the comet is Otter Mountain.
That’s awesome! Thanks for the info.
Beautiful captures, Spencer. Thank you for the show. It's interesting how the reflections of the stars in the lake are more brilliant than the sky shot.
Thanks, Robert! I think some of them may look that way because the water spreads out the star and makes it look larger.
Have watched a couple of your videos so far and like the content and your presentation style. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻
Much appreciated! Will do.
It looks stunning!
Thanks, Kim! It was so cool in person too.
I love the pictures, looks super cool! And I can relate to staying up until morning to edit shots :D
From where I currently live it's hard to get to a location with minimal light pollution, sadly.
Thank you! Photographers are no strangers to working at odd hours. Sorry that you’re not able to see this comet in person. There will certainly be more!
Great shots! Thanks for sharing and staying up so late...
Sure thing! It was worth it 10x over.
Love your enthusiasm. From where I live Neowise is not visible. There will be others.
Thanks, Mark! There definitely will be, this is far from the only one.
Nice 👍
Thank you!