Bengalureans face Covid-19, cloudy skies to catch Neowise comet

The appearance of the Neowise comet for the first time in 6,800 years, fired the imagination of the world. Images of the comet streaking over desert vistas and famous monuments have gone viral.

In Bengaluru, however, clouds have fizzled celestial dreams. Now a handful of amateur astrophotographers across the city say they caught the space-travelling visitor during a rare parting of the clouds last week.

One of them is techie Sudheer Pandey (29), living in Seegehalli, who said he was tracking the comet on a sky-map application for weeks in the hopes of catching a glimpse of it. “I was thwarted by overcast clouds,” he said.

Pandey said he decided to try again on July 21, when the comet was on its closest point of approach to earth. According to Dr Chrisphin Karthik of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), on July 21, the comet was 104 million km from earth.

As Pandey prepared to set up on the roof of his 12-story apartment block, he was told that his apartment had been deemed a containment zone after two individuals came down with Covid-19. Soon, members of Pandey’s resident welfare association were on a warpath to curb movement.

“I tried to convince them that I was on a scientific mission. They wanted to send a guard up with me to check my movements,” Pandey added.

Stressed and tense that he had only a limited amount of time on the roof, Pandey said he had just set up his camera and tripod, when almost on cue at about 7.30 pm, the overcast clouds parted to the northwest, revealing the comet. “I immediately took some photos,” he said.

Meantime, across the city in Kodigehalli, 37-year-old Sathyakumar Sharma, a member of the Association of Bengaluru Amateur Astronomers (ABAA), had spent the last five days trying to spot the comet.

“I was waking up at 4 am to try to catch it. Then, between 7.30 and 8 pm, on July 21, I could see it in the sky,” he said, adding that he fired off several frames with his camera at 100 mm zoom.

Most of the images made no buzz. “There were only a few photos. Within the city’s amateur astronomer community only about four other people got any shots,” Sharma said. This was corroborated by Dr Karthik, who added that IIA was focused more on celestial observations at its main facilities at Hanle, Leh.

Pandey, meantime, expressed relief at having captured the comet on film. “I’m just glad I don’t have to wait another 6,800 years to catch a glimpse of it,” he said.