My home in the foothills outside Yosemite affords me both a great western view and liminal light pollution, which makes for incredible star-gazing opportunities. I took this photo of Comet Neowise and the Big Dipper tonight from my front yard.
I am going to miss Comet Neowise when it vanishes from view. For me, something about this beautiful celestial object paying us a visit created some hope in these challenging times. Cyril Christo wrote a thoughtful essay on this theme for The Hill.
"This is a once in a lifetime gift, this supervening celestial body, with flaming tail streaming from another dimension, this Neowise comet flying by the Earth and a chastened human species looking for answers to this fragile, maddening time... Neowise is an enormous sentinel to a beleaguered species. Saving the Earth and making a living can go hand in hand. We have to be able to discern the vast difference between reality and the fantasy many of us in America have not been able to distinguish. We are not starring in a science fiction movie. Society needs to become visionary to salvage the beauty of what remains on Earth before it becomes uninhabitable like Mars presently is. A beauty we have to salvage before Nature vanishes before our eyes. "