Photographer captures stunning shots of elusive Comet Nishimura

The comet, which was only discovered in August this year, made its closest approach to Earth last weekend before it fell rapidly towards the sun and back into the outer reaches of the solar system for another 400 years.

Zoltán Romvári, who is originally from Hungary and moved to Northwich in 2007 but now lives in Warrington, a master photographer and artist having completed a degree at the University of Manchester.

Comet Nishimura Zoltán Romvári

Earlier this year, he captured the Northern Lights at Meols beach in Wirral and has now added Comet Nishimura to his photographic collection.

The comet, which gives off a green glow, was discovered on August 12 by amateur Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura.

Zoltán spent the weekend in Snowdonia National Park in Wales and, after a week of organising and providing the technical background, he started taking photos on Friday afternoon.

Snowdonia National Park was the perfect place to capture Comet Nishimura

Zoltán said: “The plan was to rest for the first two hours after the golden hour and start after midnight but we got a breathtaking sunset with clear skies and it was possible to take some deep space photos.

“The weather turned cloudy but after three hours we got clear skies again and I knew that we’d be successful.

“Just before sunrise Comet Nishimura arrived.”

READ MORE ABOUT ZOLTAN IN HIS BEHIND THE LENS FEATURE:

Master photographer tries to capture “the art of the moment”

Despite plans to sleep before photographing the elusive comet, Zoltán didn’t manage to get a wink of sleep so one of his cameras was working between 6pm and 9am the following day.

So was it worth the sleepless night?

Clouds cleared to reveal the spectacular night sky

He said: “Absolutely - our expectations were exceeded!

“Two fine art landscape photo series were produced and I have already entered one of them for an overseas exhibition.

“The year is not over yet and October also holds interesting things for us.

“On October 22, we will meet the Orionids meteor shower and on October 28 we will see a partial lunar eclipse.

The blue supermoon at the end of August

“In the past few days, there have already been early Northern Lights sightings across the UK, so this year the season starts earlier.

“I would definitely like to repeat last year and photograph the Aurora Borealis wherever possible.”

Zoltán added: “After capturing the Northern Lights in Wirral, I managed to take a high-resolution photo of the supermoon at the end of August and now Nishimura.

“Observing the sky started as a hobby many, many years ago but today it is more of a challenge to constantly achieve better.”

The golden hour, just after sunset

Zoltán is a popular member of the Warrington Guardian Camera Club, which is a friendly group of amateur and professional photographers who regularly share their favourite images as well as photographs based on a weekly theme.

If you would like to join Warrington Guardian Camera Club, visit facebook.com/groups/WGcameraclub

If you would like to appear in our Behind the Lens feature, email heidi.summerfield@newsquest.co.uk