Don't Miss This Increasingly Rare Chance to See a Comet With The Naked Eye

www.sciencealert.com ^ | GARETH DORRIAN & IAN WHITTAKER, THE CONVERSATION 17 JULY 2020

[Shady]

Look under the Big Dipper 1 hour after Sunset. Star Guide is a great app, Click on the Magnifying Glass and go to Comets, Select Neowise and point it into the Northwest Sky. It will guide you right there.

[Conan the Librarian]

Correction. It’s moving so fast it’s now better to use top right/bottom left stars as pointers tonight.

[Hot Tabasco]

the observation of comets with the naked eye is becoming much rarer.

The most impressive view of the night time sky I had ever experienced was on a pheasant hunting trip to N.W. Kansas and staying in a farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere.........No city lights, no nothing to corrupt the sky.....

[redshawk]

Wow. Great pic.
Maybe I can see it tonight in San Antonio.

[WildHighlander57]

Thanks!

[WildHighlander57]

The numbers are the dates?

What program did you use?

[KarlInOhio]

It's not my graphic. I got it from earthsky.org

The numbers are the dates, so as the month goes on the comet is higher, but it will be getting dimmer too.

[KarlInOhio]

With the constant increase of light pollution in the night sky, the observation of comets with the naked eye is becoming much rarer.

When my city was replacing a major roadway's lighting and they used low light pollution fixtures. The bulb is tucked into the fixture rather than being exposed. The road is just as bright as before, but you have a hard time seeing the light source more than two or three light poles ahead rather than seeing a couple of miles of exposed lights.

[ifinnegan]

That’s cool.

Where did you see them from?

[KarlInOhio]

Does it streak across the sky, or does it appear as in your photo just hovering stationary?

It makes a small motion against the background stars every day which you probably couldn't see unless you had a telescope rotating with the sky. Just like the stars, moon and planets it moves around the North Star during the night.

According to Wikipedia on the day of its closest approach in 1996 "Hyakutake was moving so rapidly across the night sky that its movement could be detected against the stars in just a few minutes; it covered the diameter of a full moon (half a degree) every 30 minutes."

[LegendHasIt]

I finally saw it last night. about 9:30 PM... But I had to use a night vision monocular to see it, despite living out in the middle of nowhere and it being a cloudless night. Even after locating it with the NV, I still couldn’t see it with naked eye, or my (admittedly cheap) binoculars.

[minnesota_bound]

If I am out in public naked looking at a comet, won’t I be propositioned by my good looking neighbor lady?

[mware]

I live in South jersey. Told about an hour after sunset ND under the Big Dipper.

[SunkenCiv]

Speaking of comet, I saw someone at Dollar Tree with a liquid Comet cleaner. Hey, it's not easy to stay on topic after a long hot day.

[kristinn]

That was taken about 10:15 p.m. Thursday night in eastern Ohio. It was visible again tonight to the unaided eye for about an hour. Much better view with binoculars.

[kristinn]

Thanks. I had better viewing tonight.

[kristinn]

The graphic in the comment below yours is an accurate representation of where and when to see the comet. Hope you can see it soon.

[CPT Clay]

Bump

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Thank you!!! No luck yet!!!

[walkingdead]

I was able to find it last night, showed the wife and kids. We used binoculars too, great minds think alike!