What is the moment?

On March 27, 2020, A NASA space telescope, known as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) first spotted the icy rock comet, which was officially named C/2020 F3.

Story

So it is the year 2020, and a lot of things are happening for the first time.

First time in 6 months:

  • We have not left our city.
  • We have not seen many faces from our office.
  • We have not dined in restaurants (Yep! In 6 months :/)
  • And a lot of other (not so happy) things

But (and that’s a big BUT), not everything is as depressing as the first few lines of this blog. Today i.e. 13th of July, 2020. We did get a chance to witness a moment that has happened, roughly after 6800 years. I know this is BIG. And the good part is I was able to finally capture this with my camera. A moment of 3 seconds, has built memory of a lifetime.

Today, we did get up at 3:30 AM to go to Jacksonville Beach to witness this moment. And it was worth it!

Here is also a photograph that I tried to take with a lens that had no astrophotography capabilities (28mm:f/3.5:ISO400), nonetheless the brightness of the comet did its job. The image is just to remind me the feeling of excitement I had for those couple of moments and hours after that!

  • NEOWISE-Comet-2020-NASA-March-27-Sunrise-harshalstory
    NEOWISE-Comet-2020-NASA-March-27-Sunrise-harshalstory

Anyone, who is still interested in seeing this comet, it can be seen from Florida till July 23, 2020.

For the list of timings please see below: