TORONTO -- As the now-famed Comet NEOWISE continues to zip through the inner solar system to the delight of stargazers around the world, new photos show how the northern lights provided a breathtaking backdrop for the comet in Canada in recent days.
Liron Gertsman, a photographer and self-described “astronomy enthusiast” based in Vancouver, recently captured the speeding ball of ice and dust on two separate occasions.
The first night on July 12, Gertsman photographed the comet over English Bay in Vancouver for what he described as a “very ‘Vancouver’ landscape” image featuring the spectacle.
The next night, the 19-year-old photographer captured Comet NEOWISE again over Harrison Lake, located a short distance from Vancouver, but this time there was an extra special backdrop.
“I was treated to what might be a once in a lifetime event; the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) showed up, ‘photobombing’ my comet shot,” Gertsman said in an email to CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. “For about 30 minutes, the Aurora was visible to the naked eye, a very rare event at this latitude of just 49 degrees north.”
While the colours were hard to see, Gertsman said, the pillars of the Aurora Borealis were “clearly visible dancing across the northern sky.”
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In order to enhance the photos’ vividness, Gertsman explained that he did some basic colour correction and adjusted the exposure, brightness, and contrast. He said the photos were taken using long exposures and star tracking, which he was able to do with a special tracking mount that compensates for the motion of the Earth and prevents “star trails” in these types of photos of the night sky.
“The result is more detail and colours than the naked eye can see, but all the data is captured in-camera,” he said. “This is a pretty standard workflow for much of the night sky pictures seen online (including most images you’ll see organizations like NASA post), especially those used for scientific purposes, as they help to show more detail.”
Speaking of NASA, the agency also shared a photo of the comet – also known as C/2020 F3 – as it soared above western Manitoba on Tuesday.
In that photo, taken by Donna Lach, the comet can be seen speeding across the night-filled sky with ribbons of colour from the Aurora Borealis just beneath it.
“I fought off mosquitoes as I waited for the never-ending dusk to show me what was in the sky. Finally, at about 11:30 p.m. CDT, the aurora and comet were both appearing, and I could see it was going to be epic,” she told NASA. “The large, thick band of aurora soon started to dance, showing brilliant blues and purples looking to the west.”
For anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of the comet for themselves, NASA has provided some tips on how to spot it in the night sky before it disappears in the coming weeks for another 6,800 years.
