A night sky to remember

Last week dozens of online photos of Comet NEOWISE enticed me to make an effort to see it for myself. At 9:00 PM on Friday I noticed that the sky was clear, threw some gear in a pack, and hiked up the hill behind the house. I sat in the grass in a big hilltop clearing as the sky darkened and first the comet, and then a million stars, and then the full sweep of the Milky Way emerged above me.

Comet NEOWISE. I like to think that this photo shows a hint of the separate ion tail to the left of the main dust tail, but I often think my photos are better than they really are. Nikkor 300mm 1:4.5 lens (ca. 1975) on Nikon D3100. ISO 800, f/8, 5 seconds. July 20, 2020, 11:22 PM EDT.
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