I took the kids to Harper's Ferry yesterday (Saturday) so we could hike up to split rock to watch sunset and hopefully catch a glimpse of comet NEOWISE. The conditions looked like they were going to be perfect - with the exception of the beastly heat and humidity. When we arrived at Harper's Ferry, it was 98*F and crazy humid, and unfortunately, the rest of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland all had the same idea - there was no where to park.
So I asked the kids if they wanted to go home or make the 2 hour drive to Shenandoah. Since NEOWISE will not come around for another 4000 years, they opted for the chance to see it at Shenandoah. The comet sets pretty close to the horizon in the northwest just after sunset and rises in the northeast just before sunrise - so we needed to get to a location that can see 15-20* above the horizon, which is not easy around here (too many hills and forests that come right up to the road, or fields that are too small to get that 15* up).
So we made the drive, and loved the scenery and the fact that we went from 98*F to 79*F in that time. The only problem was, there were some clouds in the south and west that were making their way to the north.
Those clouds were slow moving, and while they gave us a pretty-enough sunset, they totally obscured the comet we really were hoping to catch a glimpse of. We stayed up on Stony Man (the cliffs you see in the photo above) until a bit after dark in the hopes the clouds would dissipate - but they actually got more intense. Coupled with a storm to the south (nifty little lightning show) and a looming long drive home, we made our way back to the car.
We made one last stop at a pull out on Skyline Drive, but again, the clouds on the horizon had grown worse - no chance for any of us (and there were loads of people at that pull out) to see the comet.
Oh well - we tried and we had a nice time up in the mountains. NEOWISE will be getting closer to Earth for the next couple of days - hopefully we can catch it one of these days.
Cheers!
Marc
