#Man stages epic proposal before NEOWISE comet only visible every 6,800 years

John Nicotera proposed to Erica Pendrak at McCauley Mountain in Old Forge with the NEOWISE comet in the sky on July 18, 2020.
Courtesy Timothy Leach/@tleach18

A New York couple is engaged after the man popped the question before the NEOWISE comet, only visible about every 6,800 years.

John Nicotera had planned to propose to girlfriend Erica Pendrak during a trip to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon this summer, Syracuse.com reports, though the adventure was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Luckily, the stars aligned in an epic way for the plan to continue. Nicotera, who identifies as a “space junkie,” instead invited his partner to view the NEOWISE comet with him when it became visible from the Empire State this month.

“We had other things going on during the week and that was really the only night that worked for us,” he recalled. “At that point, I knew I needed the clouds to be away, the skies to be clear, and Mother Nature to be friendly to me.”

Nicotera enlisted the help of his friend, photographer Tim Leach, to capture photos of the life-changing moment on July 18, Insider reports.

Meeting up with Leach and his girlfriend near McCauley Mountain in Old Forge for the celestial event, the couple posed for a few pictures before Nicotera signaled that he was about to get down on one knee.

“John was viewing the images on my camera after a few attempts and whispered, ‘I’m going to propose, can you get a photo?’ My response – ‘Don’t move for about 7 seconds,’” Leach wrote on his website. “The result was a slightly out-of-focus, noisy image that was a perfect moment.”

She said yes, and the rest is (social media) history.

Nicotera shared the striking silhouette images to Twitter, in a post that has since gone viral with over 8,000 likes and congratulations from astronaut Garrett Reisman.

“Our story is being spread around the country and the world. That’s kind of awesome to see and to have some good news,” the bride-to-be told Insider.

The future groom voiced thanks to his photographer pal, grateful that Leach “froze the greatest moment of my life so far.”

“It’s not just a memory. I can relive it as long as that photo lasts, and we are always going to have that,” Nicotera said.

The Utica couple, who are both teachers, hope to marry next summer.

The comet, also known as C/2020 F3, was discovered on March 27 by NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) space telescope.

“The comet takes about 6,800 years to make one lap around its long, stretched out orbit, so it won’t visit the inner solar system again for many thousands of years,” NASA explained on its website.

NASA notes that the comet’s closest approach to Earth was on July 22, at a distance of about 64 million miles.

It is not expected to return for nearly 7,000 years.

Fox News’ James Rogers, Chris Ciaccia and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.