Comet NEOWISE over Richmond, Virginia

In 2020, during the Pandemic, I heard about a comet that was coming close to earth and would probably be bright enough to see even in cities. I looked up where in the sky it would appear, and in July of 2020 i drove about 10 miles east of my home to a driving range, that happened to have a clear, open sky to the north where the comet was supposed to be. I set up my Olympus Pen-F with my 40-150mm zoom lens on the tripod, and waited till dark. I used an astronomy app on my phone to find the area of the sky where the comet should appear, lined my camera up, and set it for a long exposure using the “Live Time” feature of the camera to watch the image develop on the monitor as the exposure was being made. After a few seconds, I realized the comet was right in the middle of my viewfinder! It was my first really amazing astrophotography experience, and I couldn’t believe I captured it right near home even with all the light pollution.