All the space weather and astronomy websites have been posting remarkable pictures of Comet McNaught, a near-earth object that put on a fabulous display as it passed through our solar system. The sun started to melt the comet more and more as it approached, and it is now even visible in daylight…if you live in the southern hemisphere.

I tried to capture this comet with my camera…repeatedly. People from as far north as Great Falls, and perhaps even further north, were posting their pictures of it…so what was my problem? Clouds.

I would dutifully get up early to go find a nice high point from which to stalk this celestial event, pull out my little locator map that I’d found on the web somewhere, and wait for the comet to come over the eastern horizon. Many mornings I never even got out the door; a look outside would indicate far too many clouds for the trip to be worthwhile. On some particularly frustrating mornings, the sky would be perfectly clear…except for a thick band along the horizon! It seemed I could NOT catch a break. Soon I began to read on the websites that Comet McNaught would no longer be visible from the northern hemisphere. So I guess I missed it…or did I?

This was a sunrise photo I posted on the morning of January 12th. I’d run over to the church to sweep the snow from front steps and had my camera pack with me (of course). The sun was doing some cool things, so I found some high ground on my way home and grabbed some nice wide sunrise shots for later. As it turns out, there might be a comet in there somewhere!

Obviously I didn’t use my telephoto lens or adjust my aperture to try to find the comet, but I think that I did get it. Had I tried to find it and set the camera accordingly, who knows? Maybe I’d have been able to get a shot of the tail. Maybe I would have had to show up a little earlier, before the sun began to blaze in the eastern sky. In any case, that’s apparently as close to Comet McNaught as I’m ever going to be.