When Mohammad Garshasb first heard that a rare comet was going to visible over Simcoe County, he decided to do whatever he could to try to see it with his own eyes.
Comet Neowise has been captured by many professional photographers over the past several days streaking across the sky over the Greater Toronto Area, however Garshasb was delighted to be able to see it himself in a rural area about 20 kilometres west of Barrie.
According to the Associated Press, the comet was named after the NASA Neowise infrared telescope, which was used to discover it in March. It is expected to still be visible until about July 24, and can be seen in the northwestern sky below the Big Dipper.
“I was intrigued by the comet. I think it only comes around once every about 7,000 years. I missed the solar eclipse that happened a few years ago, so I thought that any sort of crazy phenomenon like this, I wanted to make an effort to try to capture it,” said Garshasb, 37, who lives in Angus. “It was such a cool thing, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I’m not an astronomer or anything like that,” he said with a laugh during an interview with BarrieToday.
The first couple of nights, Garshasb went out with binoculars to a farmland area near the 25th Sideroad and Sixth Line, after finding he was easily able to see the comet as the area doesn’t have much light pollution. On July 20, at about 10:30 p.m., he was able to capture images with his phone camera.
“I fought some mosquitoes, but was able to get some shots,” he said. “I did a little bit of research on how to take nice shots at night with my Android phone. I was looking for an accessible, inexpensive way to do something that was really cool. It was about an hour’s worth of effort with things that were readily available.”
The experience was transformative for Garshasb.
“It put me in this sort of awe, when going out at night and basically just looking at the sky. I’m 37 years old. The last time I remember being really blown away by the night sky was in 2003 when we lost power. I remember stepping outside and looking up and the sky just being riddled with stars and things you could just see with your visible eye,” he said.
While other photographers may choose to invest in expensive equipment, Garshasb says he’d like to stick to his Android phone and cheap binoculars for the time being.
“It’s this cool feeling to go out. You’re just sitting in a car quietly, waiting for the clouds to break. You’re sort of at peace. It sounds a little bit hippy, but you’re one with nature,” he said. “It has inspired me to want to take more photographs, but I’m most interested in taking them with (technology) that’s readily available.”
Garshasb says he’d like to encourage people to go out and explore new hobbies in their own backyards, especially since the pandemic has restricted many people’s travel plans.
“It’s not that hard to find a good spot to take a shot in, you just need an open space without too much light pollution. Even with a cheap set of binoculars, I was able to see the colours in the tail of the comet. It’s incredible what you can do with stuff that’s already available,” he said.
“Worse-case scenario: you’ll get a few mosquito bites. Best-case scenario: you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.”
