testmeat photoblog

the last few weeks i've seen some amazing photos of comet neowise as it made its way across the night sky. i was keen to try and capture it myself, but i had two rather large impediments, a lack of clear skies at night and the fact that i live in london which is heavily light polluted. about ten days ago the forecast was pretty clear for the night, so i thought i'd test how clear a london sky could be and walked up to hampstead heath. it's a huge park in london, which has the advantage of being fairly high and also quite far from artificial lights. i got there just as the sun was setting, and had apps and maps to help me try and locate the comet. it didn't start well, i kept staring at the sky and willed the stars to come out without success. i then changed location, and headed uphill towards some distant voices and discovered there was a small crowd which had the same idea as me. some had cameras, others had telescopes and binoculars, all facing in the same direction. by this stage i could see a few stars, but still no sign of a comet, so i pointed my camera in the same place as everyone else and began taking pictures. it took a while of shooting and then scanning the results, but i eventually spotted it between the big dipper and the horizon. it was still invisible to my naked eye, but really cool to see through the camera, particularly from a major city.

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