Comet: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
Planet: Jupiter, Saturn
Stars: Altair, Deneb, Vega, LW Com, 30 Com, 31 Com, 35 Com
HD Stars: 111066, 111285, 111541, 112127
HR Stars: 4873
Summer Triangle
Identified, not Observed & Not entered into Logbook or database:
Arcturus, Moon, M64, NGC 4725, NGC 4565, Polaris
Location: Home
Date: 2020-08-02
Time: 10:30 PM - 11:38 PM ADT
Equipment: Visual, 10x42 IS Binoculars
Temperature: 21° C
SQM: 18.42
Transparency: Poor (5)
Seeing: Poor (5)
Comet NEOWISE
Boy, what a challenge it was to find NEOWISE with binoculars! Could cover 0:35 PM - 10:55 PM made it challenging to find possible pointer stars, and then there was the transparency challenge plus the 99.5% illuminated Moon. Once the clouds disappeared in the west, there was no problem. I located the curved line of stars 14 Com, 16 Com and 17 Com. I knew the comet was somewhere above this star line and had moved westerly within Coma Berenices.
Lo and behold, I found it! It was below and tot he right between 30 Com and 35 Com, almost directly below β Com. It was moving away from the North Galactic Pole (which I had just learned about from Roy Bishop). Very faint and no discernible tail. All in all, a happy observing session. May have to opt for our neighbour's yard if the comet remains visible and keeps moving west. Our shed and lilac tree are great deterrents to viewing stellar and galactic objects in the W-SW-S.
Jupiter
Callisto and Io were very close to the planet with Ganymede further out, all on the right side. Europa was on the left, about the same distance from the planet as was Ganymede. Saturn and Jupiter were also relatively close to the Moon.
Summer Triangle
Noticed the three bright stars of Aquila (Altair), Lyra (Vega) and Cygnus (Deneb). There was the Summer Triangle!