As the car leaves home, say, “Oh, I forgot the tripod, but it’s OK, I can use the car roof.”
Drive to the other side of the island, so you can see the sunset. Say airily, “If we go a bit lower, I’m sure we can get below the clouds. When you get lower, find a spot without many streetlights and point optimistically at the gap between the cloud base and the horizon. “We’ll be able to see the comet when it’s just above the horizon, which is about where it’s supposed to be.”
Wait almost two hours for the sky to darken and the comet to drop into the gap. Oh wow, it’s very clearly a comet, even with the naked eye. The tail is almost vertical. It would be, because the tail always points away from the sun.
Realise, too late, that the telegraph pole will spoil the composition, and that it’s now too dark and too late to find a better spot. There aren’t many parking spaces, and you need one without streetlights. The comet will set in half an hour. Plus your husband didn’t really want to come and it’s taking much longer than expected.
Realise, too late, that when you stand up on one leg just outside the car, the roof is behind you. You can’t hold the camera completely steady on the roof for the long exposures. It would be difficult and not entirely safe to hop around over the rough ground in the dark to the other side of the car.
Automatic exposure won’t work for this, so set the camera to manual and guess at the exposure. Stand up, and balance yourself awkwardly in the angle between the door and the car. Balance the camera on top of the door. Find that a quarter of a second is too dark, but half a second looks good. Take several exposures, trying to keep the camera really steady.
Be pleasantly surprised at the result.
