Hatter Lukas Gornisiewicz looks on at Comet Neowise in the early hours of Thursday morning. Gornisiewicz is photographing the comet in Seven Persons at Sunridge Observatory. -- Submitted photo Lukas Gornisiewicz
Hatter Lukas Gornisiewicz hasn’t really slept in the past few days, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The 36-year-old has been spending late nights and early mornings at Sunridge Observatory in Seven Persons with his camera, different lenses and a tripod.
From around 2:30 to 4 a.m., he is able to get a good view at Comet Neowise and snap countless photos from ground.
“I really haven’t slept much, but that’s OK,” he said. “I’ve been out shooting this comet since the 7th, it’s a lot of fun.
“We really don’t have a chance to see something like this all that often, so I’m going out as much as I can to photograph this comet.”
Neowise became circumpolar on Friday, meaning it will not go below the horizon after sunset. Gornisiewicz says the best evening viewing times will be around Monday, when the comet is higher up in the sky.
He added that the number of noctilucent clouds, known as night shining clouds, is amazing this year compared to others.
“They’re the highest clouds on earth,” he said. “There’s years that I never see them, this year I’ve seen them seven or eight times.
“The sun has to be a certain altitude below the horizon for them to glow.
“They’re unpredictable, but it’s kind of nice to see. They make the photos look great.”
Gornisiewicz has been an astrophotographer for 18 years. He says this is the best naked eye comet since Comet Panstarrs in 2013.
“Neowise is exceeding the brightness of the last comet,” he said. “This is pretty rare and we really don’t have this opportunity very often.
“We had comets in May that were supposed to be naked eye visible, but they got disintegrated by the sun, unfortunately.”
Gornisiewicz hopes to have a number of early mornings left to photograph Neowise.
“We’re getting quite the show here,” he said. “Everyone around the world is taking photographs and taking as much time as we need to.”
To view the comet, Gornisiewicz says it is important to get out of the city, but people don’t have to go far.
“I’m only going about 20 clicks out of town,” he said. “The best place to go is north, then you won’t have the city lights in the way.”
Gornisiewicz added there are many variables out of his control with this type of photography.
“You don’t want many clouds, you want good transparency, you don’t want the moonlight,” he said. “Once the twilight hits, you’ve only got a bit of time there before the comet gets washed out.
“It really depends on the conditions. That’s one of the fun parts of this, it’s always going to be different when you go out there.”
