July 2020

I am writing this post retrospectively. I've not been able to keep up with the blog posts as frequently as I would have liked. Looking back I know exactly why. For the past 12 months we have been at the mercy of the COVID-19 virus and world leaders mostly making a utter shambles of listening to scientific advice. Writing this still feels unreal and rather like a sci-fi novel and not something that I ever thought I'd have to write as fact. Having a background in Science and in particular Biology and Immunology, the thought of a global pandemic was always a potential threat but never an actual threat as it is now. People across the globe have suffered, lost loved ones, friends, work colleagues, it has been devastating. Although safe and having the comforts of being secure in my work Jonathen and I have been working tirelessly, for me, from home and for Jonathen in the midst of it.

One positive was July 2020, 4 months in, and exactly one year since my father passed away Comet Neowise C/2020-F3 paid a visit to the Northern Hemisphere and was bright enough to be a naked eye object and also happen upon a time where there was good weather and clear skies. Neowise was only discovered in the March and has been the best comet since Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, which my father and I spent a lot of time viewing together so the timing of Neowise made it all the more special and I wished more than anything that he could have seen it with me.

It was comet Hale-Bopp that really piqued my interest in astronomy, in particular astrophotography. I was given a film image that was just wonderful. Move onto 2020 and I took my very own film image of Comet Neowise with my Dads Canon SLR film camera, quite fitting really and a nice circle of events.

Not only was Neowise a wonderous sight, we were also graced with an exceptional display of NLCs. it allowed us sometime socially distanced time with our close friends to have some really memorable nights that I will not forget.