The Dot With the Smudge In the Sky

Comet NEOWISE got a lot of attention recently because, well, I guess because it's a comet. Being celestial object loving folks -- Liz in particular -- we decided a few evenings back to find some place dark and untraveled to take a look as Davis, despite being a small town, is next to a fairly big town, Sacramento, and in a haze concentrating valley, Hades. For whatever reason this required us driving about an hour northwest. I admittedly started to loose faith in my trusty navigator -- the aforementioned and quite beautiful Liz -- as we seemed to be heading into worse viewing areas around the 45 minute mark. We approached the coastal mountains raising the horizon on the west, the endlessly flat fields of Davis and Dixon were being replaced by the scrubby trees of central California, and we passed the giant Cache Creek Casino which served as a beacon of both artificial light and continuous car traffic in the darkness. Nevertheless a few minutes later we found another large and abandoned field with few trees and pulled over. After a few minutes of adjusting our eyes and about an hour or so after sunset we finally saw it. A moderately bright star in the northwest that, if you looked closely -- or crosseyed apparently if you are Liz, had a faint whispy glow extending above it. Looking at it closer with the binoculars it looked much the same, but clearer. Like a period you made with a pencil and then attempted to erase with a crappy eraser leading to a giant graphite smudge. It wasn't anything dramatic, but it was pretty. It was also the first comet I've actually ever seen. I missed comet Hale-Bopp in the 90's and purposefully opted out of comet MMMbop that same year. Because of its closeness to the horizon and dusk it never got terribly bright, but it was a unique experience and one that I am glad I got to share with my loving companion. The one hour drive back home was pretty boring, but every good comet story has to include a prolonged drive to nowhere doesn't it? Doesn't it?