Moon, comet, and tower
Last night I headed out for what’s likely to have been the last imaging session of Comet NEOWISE, which is now starting to get visibly fainter (and the moon’s increasing brightness will also start interfering).
Firstly, a few words about the tower in this photograph. Grandmaster Lascaris had commissioned a number of these, which were designed by Vincenzo Maculani, the pope’s own military architect. Dwejra Tower (completed in 1652) is the last tower built during Lascaris’ tenure. Incidentally, Maculani above was also an inquisitor who presided over a number of Galileo’s trial sittings. And while we’re at Galileo, while he was right about heliocentrism (and other things), he got it wrong with comets, largely arguing that they were atmospheric phenomena (though not without some divergence in his own ideas). In later times, the tower at Dwejra would also serve as a watch outpost to guard the ‘Fungus Rock’ (which featured in yesterday’s image).
A few details about the image itself. This one was mostly about balance – in two ways. Firstly, the exposure, for the moon and the comet are of very different brightness. Waiting until the moon was just above the horizon – and therefore subject to atmospheric extinction (and reddening) – made the image achievable (since it possible to fit the wide range in brightness within the camera’s dynamic range). The second (which is related) was a balance of timing, for I aimed to get the moon’s reflection to fall upon ‘Crocodile rock’. (I have a soft spot for that rock, for it is where I first saw a mesmerising shoal of barracuda on one of my first dives – the memory of that sight has become firmly stuck in my mind.) So in all, there were only a few precious seconds to work with.
And that is all. My NEOWISE imaging spree is over. I still have a few other photographs which I haven’t yet uploaded. I will do so at some point, but in the meantime, I’ll be putting the camera aside and following the rest of Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE’s journey through the telescope. (And go to sleep at a decent hour!)
To learn more about the tower (and the history of Dwejra), visit: http://dwejra.net/history-archaeology/