Comet hunting in West Glacier

We arrived in Glacier National Park about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21.

I figured we had about an hour to kill before dark, so the Boy and I went for a stroll in Apgar, where we saw a pileated woodpecker cruising through the trees looking for a meal, its bright red head and crest all fluffed up. 

After making a loop through the woods we watched a beaver working on its feedbed outside of its lodge. Beavers build a mass of cut down shrubs and trees (typically willows and the like) outside of their lodges each fall so they have a cache of food come winter. 

This one was right in the middle of it, gnawing on a branch. A younger beaver swam by and went into the lodge, making soft sounds to its brethren.  A beaver call is a subtle coo, more birdlike than beaver. 

As darkness fell we drove up the Going-to-the-Sun Road to a turnout along Lake McDonald. The lake is down a good 15 feet from where it normally is this time of year and we set up the camera and tripod out on a sandbar and waited.  

It was pretty cloudy and the hope was the skies would clear so we could get a shot of the comet Lemmon. 

But after an hour of waiting, the cloud bank, at least over the lake, never really broke up. To find the comet we needed to find the Big Dipper to the west, but we couldn’t see much of anything through the clouds other than the odd twinkle of a star and another brighter one that was probably a planet.

So we hopped into the car and headed home, but once in West Glacier, I noticed the twinkle or two of a star in the sky, so we made a hard left turn and headed down toward the old Belton Bridge. 

There, to the west, the tail of the Big Dipper arched over the Belton Hills. 

The guides all said to look to the left of the tail for the comet. My eyes aren’t what they used to be and while I saw plenty of stars I didn’t see the comet, or if I did, it was quite faint. 

But just in case I set up the camera on a tripod and set it up looking in the general direction downstream of the Middle Fork and took a frame. 

I replayed the picture and sure enough, there it was in the frame: The comet Lemmon, tail and all. Woohoo. I took several more frames and then we called it a night. (For what it’s worth, there were actually way more stars to the east than the west at the bridge.) 

By now it was pushing 9 p.m. and we hadn’t had supper, so we left. The comet should be photographable tonight (Oct. 22) as well (perhaps even more so, as there are no clouds as I write this). 

Just find the Big Dipper in the western sky and then follow the tail. The comet is about 20 degrees off the tail. 

In order to photograph it, you need a tripod to stabilize your camera or phone. You might be able to see it with your naked eye, and you might not. 

Happy comet hunting.