Comet Neowise and Noctilucent Clouds

Comet Neowise Above Jackson

Comet Neowise put on one of the best night sky shows for years back in 2020. The spectacular event peaked as it approached closer to the sun, becoming much more visible in the evening skies. It captured the inspiration of everyone on the planet who had a decent view of it.

Prior to it shining in the night sky, it was only visible in the early morning hours at dawn. Not expecting it to reach the levels it did, I figured a dawn shot might be my only chance to capture it. Appearing in the northeast sky at that time, it didn’t leave too many options for scenic landmarks around Jackson Hole, Wyoming. As such, I decided to take a different approach than I normally would to capture it.

The best option I came up with was to hike up Snow King Mountain, at least partially, to capture the comet rising over downtown Jackson. Waking up extra early, I was already partially up Snow King Mountain at first light. As predicted, I managed to get Comet Neowise off in the distance in the northeast, aka, the top-right, over town and the National Elk Refuge.

Thinking I had captured what I set out to capture, and only that, I was surprised when I got home to discover noctilucent clouds on the northern horizon. Not only was this a fantastic treat, but it was also the first time I had managed to photograph them! These hard to find clouds primarily appear in far northern latitudes, and are the highest clouds produced by Earth, reaching the mesosphere. In short, an incredible bonus to a wonderfully cosmic event!

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