To catch a glimpse of a comet blazing across Wyoming’s sky is one thing. To capture the moment with a camera is another.
Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, that’s been delighting evening star gazers for the last week, won’t be back for another 80,000 years. WyoFile’s Development Director Daniel Kenah set out to capture the once in a lifetime photograph.
“I knew the comet was going to be visible for a couple weeks,” Kenah explained. “So I’ve thought about how to capture it with something interesting in the foreground. A couple nights ago I went to a viewpoint above Big Horn and captured the comet with small bits of the Elk Fire below, but the smoke filled the valley and made that difficult.”
Undeterred, Kenah went out again the next night with a new composition in mind.
“Since the comet is almost due west in the sky, I thought about capturing some of the glacier-carved peaks you see from Highway 16 — Bighorn Peak, Darton Peak and Loaf Mountain,” Kenah said. “I knew the moon was waxing, and at about 3/4 full [that] night. It cast bright light onto the mountains, and I was far enough from the Elk Fire to avoid the smoke.”
Balancing a long enough exposure to have the moon light the mountains, but not so long that stars streak and the comet loses its crispness, Kenah set up for the photo.
“One of the things I love about night photography is the quiet time while the shutter is open. It’s wild to see an object like that in the sky. You can practically hear it spraying across the sky. And it’s only visible every 80,000 years, so it’s amazing to think about some of the earliest humans having looked up in wonder at that same chunk of rock and ice floating through deep space, reflecting light for us to see for just a few weeks.”
