Luck? Or a Sign?

The other evening I went out to spot comet Pan-STARRS. I’d known about it for some time, and I’d checked to make sure I knew where to look, but for the life of me I couldn’t see anything. I snapped a pic with my camera because its sensor is far better than my eyes. Still nothing.

I wasn’t sure how bright the comet would be in the western sky through the haze of Phoenix, but I kept taking pics ever hopeful that I’d be rewarded. At one point I thought I saw a faint smudge but that’s what it turned out to be. I even came back inside to recheck where I was supposed to look, but this time instead of going with the experts I looked for an actual photo of the comet from Phoenix. I found one taken the night before and what struck me was how far off the expert diagram had been!

I headed back out, repointed my camera, and started taking more shots. Still nothing. Disheartened I went back inside to see if I at least got a decent shot of the crescent moon. One after the other I looked at the pictures starting from the last shot. I don’t know how many shots I took, maybe fifty, maybe a hundred, but near the beginning I saw something odd near the bottom of the frame. I zoomed in and – BINGO!

Was it just luck or a sign? I dunno – maybe if my camera had been set up to take both “raw” and JPEG like it has always been instead of just JPEG I would be more convinced of it being a sign. Then again the battery was fully charged so hmm. Regardless, I am pretty chuffed at capturing the comet, and it’s really not a bad pic even if it is JPEG!