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Comet NEOWISE

I awoke at 4:30 AM and after hurriedly dragging myself outside to check the skies (still in my birthday suit!) I called to wake up one of my best friends to tell him it looked mostly good - no clouds! That meant we could image this comet, he with his telescopes, and me with my Canon Sl1 DSLR camera.

The skies were clear of clouds, but they were full of moisture, which the Gibbous Moon was doing a great job of lighting up! Humidity was over 90% and ground fog was threatening to arrive. Meanwhile, the Sun was about to rise and add more scattered light to the scene. Scattered light is an astronomer's enemy: it is the reason why we cannot see stars during the day. The stars are still there, but they are so small that when light is scattered off air molecules it washes them out.
Gradually I watched as the comet tail disappeared, like the stars, into a light blue sky. Below the lovely hues of sunrise greeted my day.
At about 6 AM it was too bright to see anything heavenly, so I headed for home, well satisfied with the morning explorations, and too excited to sleep!