Saturday, 11 July 2020, dawned partly cloudy. That morning the work on my replacement POD Zenith Table was completed! At sunset a monsoon thunderstorm arrived! Unfortunately, there were storm clouds right where Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE would be after sunset. So no sighting this night.

There was some lightning, thunder, and rain here (0.02") from a storm that came up from the southeast. It rained on Mt Lemmon (0.1"-0.5"), which helped with the Bighorn Fire. Fortunately the lightning did not start new fires on the mountain.

Sunday, 12 July, was partly cloudy until late afternoon when thunderstorms began kicking off in the area.

Monday, 13 July, was cloudy with some thunderstorms in the area (but not here). There was a vivid sundog in the sky in the afternoon.

The northwestern sky looked like this shortly after sunset.

I decided to try to see Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE. As the sky got darker I scanned the area where the comet would be using 7x50 binoculars and at 2040 MST I saw it. I could see the faint tail. I took the following D850 DSLR photos using a 70-300mm lens on a camera tripod. The comet appears below center just above the horizon in the first and last photos.

2042 MST, f/4.5, 5 seconds, ISO 4000, FL 70mm

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2050 MST, f/5.6, 3 seconds, ISO 6400, FL 300mm

2054 MST, f/4.5, 10 seconds, ISO 6400, FL 70mm

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The comet will be rising higher in the northwestern sky each night so weather permitting I should be able to get better photographs of it.

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