Dale Boyd

Times-Chronicle

Osoyoos photographer Greg Reely was awestruck by the now-famous NEOWISE comet lighting up the late-night sky when he first captured it from his deck, staying up late to chase the once-in-a-lifetime photo op for three nights.

“It’s lucky because I’m used to staying up very late, so I’m a late-night guy,” Reely said with a laugh.

The comet C/2020 F3, better known as NEOWISE, due to its discovery in NASA’s Near-Earth Object WISE program, became visible to the naked eye in July, usually around 3 a.m. in the Okanagan.

The comet made its closest ever approach to the Sun on July 3, increasing the orbital period from over 4,000 years to 6,700 years — meaning it will be a long time before, or if, human eyes or cameras ever see it again.

Reely, president of the Osoyoos Photography Club, first saw the comet on July 12 after going to sleep early and getting up around 2 a.m. to take photos from his deck.

“I was walking around my deck, I looked north and went ‘hey there it is!’ I could see it with my naked eye. I was quite surprised,” Reely said. “I’ve never shot a comet before this is the first time I tried this, besides this one only comes around every 7,000 years or something. I didn’t know what to expect to be honest. I don’t think I’ve ever observed a comet before personally.”

“Being able to see it with your naked eye when it’s something like 100 million kilometres away. It does kind of baffle the mind a bit.”

Osoyoos photographer Greg Reely captured both the NEOWISE comet and the northern lights off the highway near Cawston. Photo: Greg Reely

He was up until 5 a.m. the first night of shooting and “caught the sunrise,”  then came back for more.

After initially thinking two nights was enough, Reely was able to get some work out of the way and the comet was once again calling. He packed up multiple cameras and his gear and drove to multiple locations in the South Okanagan.

Taking time-lapse photos as well, Reely captured hundreds of photos of NEOWISE over the course of three nights from different locations. Reely ended up off the side of the highway near Cawston where he got his favourite shot which included the northern lights.

“When I shot north towards the comet I was just previewing some photos while my other cameras was on time-lapse. And I saw in the preview and said ‘oh, the northern lights were here?!’” Reely said.

While the northern lights are not as bright in the South Okanagan as they are farther north, the phenomenon can be picked up on cameras using longer shutter speeds.

Reely used a little “editing magic” to bring out the northern lights behind NEOWISE, but noted that he didn’t layer any shots with multiple photos.

“A lot of astral photographers will stack photos, 12 or 20 or 100 shots to bring out the detail in the sky. In my case I haven’t done stacking yet so I just used a single photo out of a series of 500. In that photo the northern lights seemed to peek a bit,” Reely said.

Check out more of Reely’s photos here. Those interested in the Osoyoos Photography Club can email [email protected] visit the website.