Comet Leonard 2021 over House Mountain. Captured from our driveway about an hour after sunset on Dec. 20, 2021, Comet Leonard is seen here settling in for the night behind House Mountain. I was actually quite fortunate to capture Mr. Leonard at all; an hour earlier, the sky was cloudy, and it will likely stay that way for the rest of the week at least, after which the comet is likely to be much less visible. But our 2021 “Christmas Comet” chose to peek out when the sky was temporarily clear and almost completely dark, and he gave us a nice pose alongside the trees atop this volcanic ridge south of Sedona.

Tech info: Nikon D850 camera with Tamron 70-200mm lens at 200mm, 2 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 2000.

Image ©2021 James D. Peterson