LOCALadk Magazine

44 Fall 2020 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk On March 27, 2020 NASA's Near-Earth- Object-Wide-field- Infrared-Sur vey-Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite spotted a comet that would soon be visible to the naked eye for mil- lions of people on Earth to enjoy. It would be the brightest visible comet since the comet Hale-Bop in 1997. When comets orbit near the Sun they often burn up by the intense rays, but NEOWISE sur vived. As soon as I heard this news, I knew I had to tr y to photograph it. Scientists predict- ed that the comet would be most visible in mid-July, and I went out most clear nights to take a look. After a few successful photos, I met some friends near Mc- Cauley Mountain in Old Forge who were also interested in astrophotography. The main target was Comet NEOWISE, but we had some pretty clear skies and were able to see the ga- lactic core of the Milky Way, Andromeda, Jupiter and Saturn, and the International Space station. I set up my main camera for a timelapse on NEOWISE and was just enjoying some good conversation with awesome star gazing when I had the idea to capture some comet-silhouettes of my buddy, John Nicotera, and his girlfriend, Erica Pendrak. Rather than disturb my timelapse, I just got out my trusty pocket camera and a travel tripod, composed the shot, and started shooting. We are lucky that the Old Forge area has class 2 and 3 Bortle Scale viewing, and on clear nights it is simply amazing if you get away from the lights of the village. The results on the back of my camera were exciting enough that John wanted to propose to Erica with the comet in the frame. After the world was shut down by COVID -19, John's original plan of proposing on a trip to the West Coast was also put on hold and he was searching for a way to propose that would still be special. After he looked at some images on the camera, he was inspired. He whispered, "I'm going to propose, can you get the shot? " I told him they both had to be completely still for about 7 seconds. I posed the couple pretending it to be another shot and then John popped the question at the last second. When I got home and began to look at the images, I was initially displeased. They were a bit out of focus and noisier than I would have preferred. I usually like to stack images to reduce noise, similar to how the HUBBLE telescope achieves its spectacular deep-space images. My process is much sim- pler than that, but I didn't want to create a composite of a marriage proposal, so I just had to use some noise removal to the best of my ability. I was actually impressed with how lit- tle noise there was considering the small camera sensor and an ISO around 4000. I sent a few to John with an email apol- ogizing for the noisy and blurr y images. It is ver y difficult to get sharp images of the night sky and people when they have to be perfectly still for a period of time, but I was confident that they would look acceptable enough on social media. The next morning I awoke to an image that had started go- ing viral. It began when John made his initial post and tagged Astronaut Garret Reisman, who retweeted the image, and then the likes and shares started pouring in. It was featured on Good Morning America, The Weather Channel, CNN, regional ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates, The Insider, The Daily Mail, Trav- el and Leisure, MyModernMet and many others. John and Erica are also scheduled to appear on the Kelly Clarkson show on NBC this fall. My pocket camera is not the first camera I choose when shooting astrophotography, but it is always with me. It's not my first choice mostly due to the 35mm (full-frame equivalent) lens that it has. The sensor and lens are capable, but the field of view is a bit limiting. I usually opt for 24mm or wider for single frames, or my trusty 50mm lens for panorama shots. You don't need big, expensive camer- as for astrophotography. In fact, when people ask me for camera recommendations, I usually advise to select a small camera that you will take ever ywhere with you. Big expen- sive cameras will just stay on your shelf at home never taking photos of the important moments in your life. Smartphones are making leaps and bounds with their lowlight capabilities, and in the future will be able to capture a comet, but not quite yet. What I've learned most about my image going viral is that the technical aspects of photography are ver y much sec- ond to the moment. An image needs to tell a stor y to be successful, and what better stor y than the engagement of friends under a comet that wont appear again for another 6000 years. Tim Leach

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