Liam is real rockstar as he captures Neowise

IT was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which Valentia man Liam Garvey seized with both hands when he headed outside in the early hours of Tuesday morning, July 21, to try and capture the Neowise comet on camera before it disappeared for another 6,800 years.

Well, capture it Liam most certainly did as evidenced by the stunning picture here which shows Neowise in all its cosmic glory flying over the harbour on Valentia Island, looking towards Killelan Mountain.

Speaking to The Kerryman about capturing Neowise in such stunning detail, Liam said that he was blessed to have such a clear night on which to photograph.

It is named after NASA’s space telescope – the NearEarth Object Wide-field Infared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) – that first discovered it back in March of this year.

“Neowise had been passing through our solar system for the past few weeks and it’s on its way out now, but it was just that particular night, last Tuesday, it was very clear over Killelan,” said Liam.

“I’m in Knightstown with a good view of Killelan and, so, with the nice dark skies that we have here when we do get them, I managed to get a long exposure shot in because you do have to use long exposures to get that type of detail in the photo.”

As for whether he could believe his eyes when he looked at the camera and saw what he had captured, Liam again paid tribute to his own part of the world down there in Valentia.

“When we do get those clear nights down here, you’ll always be able to get a lot of details into the photo, such as the stars etcetera,” he said.

Asked what he intends to do with the photo, Liam said that it’s certainly one that he’ll be getting framed.

“Definitely I’ll be getting it framed. I just wanted to share it because I thought people might like to see it. What with COVID-19 and bars being closed, there hasn’t been too much opportunity for people to get together and chat about things,” he said.

“So, when I brought up Neowise to people, a lot of them didn’t know what I was talking about or hadn’t spotted it, so this photo is a chance for people to see it themselves,” he said.

At its closest, Neowise was an estimated 64 million miles (103 million km) away from Earth.

Officially known as Comet C/2020 F3, it is the brightest to be seen in the Northern Hemisphere in 25 years, and both amateur and professional star gazers have been kept on their toes over the last few weeks trying to capture a glimpse of this fleeting visitor from outer space.