Not our usual beat here but Jeff Mills at least would approve of this post.
Skywatchers are enthralled by the appearance of a new comet in the night sky, available through much of the northern hemisphere for the next two weeks.
C/2020 F3 NEOWISE is the technical name for the Earth’s latest visitor, approaching a mere 64 million miles (or 103 million kilometers) near our beleaguered planet. It was only discovered in March using NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (aka NEOWISE).
It was captured by the astronauts of Expedition 63 on the International Space Station this week:
Bloomberg has images from around the world:
Reuters has a timelapse from France:
Tonight and for the next few days until July 15, C/2020 F3 NEOWISE will appear shortly before sunrise in the northern hemisphere. Around 4am local time, look to the northeast for a glimpse of the new comet appearing just over the horizon. The further north you are, the better the view.
From July 14 to 23 it may be possible to see the comet at the opposite time of day – nearly an hour after sunset, looking in the northwest, ascending in position each day, though this may be too faint to see. Stargazing apps like Night Sky are helpful (not an endorsement, maybe not even the best but it’s one that works and it’s free to use.)
