Align the lower part of your fist with the horizon. Hold your fist out at arm’s length (see image, right). To see the comet, go outside early in the morning, about an hour before sunlight appears on the horizon, and face toward the Northeast. The comet will be visible about halfway between the horizon and the top of your fist. Align lower part of your fist with the horizon. Accessible Applications for Measuring Light Pollutionįacing the Northeastern sky, stretch out your arm and form a fist.Marshall Space Flight Center Meteoroid Environment Office.Search this blog Search for: Search Archives The smaller the numerical value, the brighter the object is Magnitude – The units used to describe brightness of astronomical objects. Perihelion – The point where an object orbiting the sun is closest to the sun Sublimate – The transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas state, without passing through the liquid state Nucleus – The head of the comet, which is made up of ice and frozen gas that vaporizes to form the coma and the tail Comet VocabularyĬomet – Made up of ice, dust and gas which form a coma and sometimes a visible tail when it is orbiting close to the sun Learn more about comets at NASA’s Solar System Exploration website.įor comet-related, kid-friendly activities, visit NASA Science Space Place. This is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event, as NEOWISE won’t be visiting again for 6,800 years! In areas with more light pollution, binoculars may be necessary for viewing. Beaches, fields, and areas with higher elevations are all great observation spots. You need a clear view of the horizon to see this comet. If you are an early riser, you can still see NEOWISE about an hour before sunrise in the northeastern horizon until the end of the week. The comet will be below the stars that make up the bowl of the Big Dipper and shining nearly as brightly at a magnitude 3. To see NEOWISE, start looking in the northwestern sky about an hour after sunset. “Binoculars will allow you to see the whole thing, whereas a telescope only shows a tiny part.” “Definitely use binoculars for now – the tail of NEOWISE is at least 7 degrees long, which is much bigger than the field of view of most telescopes,” said Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center. As for which to choose, binoculars are your current best option. NEOWISE can be seen with the naked eye, but for an even better viewing experience, binoculars or even a telescope is recommended. NEOWISE will make its closest approach (64 million miles) to Earth on July 22, but the best viewing window is happening right now until July 19. When these comets approach the sun, their frozen bodies start to sublimate, and they spew dust and gasses in a tail that can span millions of miles.Ĭomet NEOWISE made its harrowing close approach to the sun, known as its perihelion, on July 3, and it is now zooming past the Earth on its way back out of the solar system. They can range in size from a few miles to tens of miles wide, and the nucleus of NEOWISE measures about 3 miles across. Binoculars should give a really spectacular view!Ĭomet nuclei are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the sun. The comet will be below the stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper, and about as bright (magnitude 3). Look almost due northwest, 15 degrees above the horizon. The graphic shows the comet as seen from Huntsville, Friday, July 17 at 9 PM. Its popularity is warranted, however, as it is the brightest comet since Comet Hale-Bopp that passed by Earth 23 years ago in 1997. However, this month there is a different kind of show happening in the sky.Ĭomet Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) was only discovered a few months ago on March 27 by NASA’s NEOWISE telescope and has quickly become a popular solar system visitor. For Comet Vocabulary, please read to the end of the post.įor most, early July is when most people living in the United States look to the skies to watch dazzling firework shows.
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