There is something magical, maybe even a bit romantic, to spot a celestial object passing through our night sky, a temporary visitor in an otherwise mostly predictable map of stars. The first time I saw a comet I was eight years old and had to stand on a stool to look through a neighbor’s telescope. I glimpsed the most famous of all comets, Halley’s Comet, while it traversed our sky on an orbit that allows it to visit us Earthlings around once every 75 years. If I’m lucky enough to live to see the year 2061, when I’ll be 83, I’ll have a chance to see it one final time, and perhaps once again, I’ll need a stool. It wasn’t until 1995 that I saw my next slow-motion “shooting star,” Comet Hale-Bopp. I was a young photographer though, and despite it being so visible in the night sky, and even during the day (!!) I never got a photo of it. Two comets, two memories, no photos. When Comet Neowise surprised us all with a visit this year, though, I knew I had to capture it, packing the tent and...