NEOWISE

I have my workday alarm set for 5:50. This morning I happened to wake up early, around 4:40, perhaps because I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour for a change. Since I was awake, I decided to go outside to see if I could spot Comet NEOWISE.

I took my binoculars and walked around my yard, but with the trees and the lights from my neighbors' houses, I couldn't see anything. I therefore decided to drive a little way to see if I could find a spot.

I stopped at the back of a cemetery just outside my subdivision. There was still light pollution, but not as many bright lights directly adjacent; and the trees were more manageable. I wasn't sure exactly in which direction or exactly how high to look, so I blundered around for a few minutes. Finally, I made a concentrated effort to determine exactly which way was NE, and focused my effort there. After that, it only took me about ten seconds of scanning the sky with my binoculars to spot it.

Once I knew where it was, I could see it with my naked eyes, but I never would have noticed it, nor been able to tell it was a comet, without first seeing it with binoculars. It was quite cool, though, being only the 3rd (I think) comet I've seen.