How to see Comet NEOWISE in the night sky this month

By Joe Rao 6 hours ago

It's visible to the naked eye in dark skies!



Astrophotographer Chris Schur captured this view of Comet NEOWISE F3 from Payson, Arizona
before dawn on July 5, 2020. (Image credit: Chris Schur/Chris Schur Astrophotography)

The early reviews are in: Comet NEOWISE is a hit!

Those who have gotten up before sunrise to gaze into the twilight skies have been greeted by the best comet performance for Northern Hemisphere observers since the 1997 appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp. Indeed, NEOWISE (catalogued C/2020 F3), emphatically ended the nearly quarter-century lack of spectacular comets.

Early fears of another fizzler like comets ATLAS and SWAN quickly eased during June when NEOWISE proved to be an intrinsically bright comet with a highly condensed core. It brightened 100-fold from June 9, when as a seventh-magnitude object it disappeared into the glare of the sun, to June 27, when it appeared in the field of view of the LASCO-3 camera on NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shining at second-magnitude.

Even before Comet NEOWISE arrived at perihelion — its closest point to the sun — observers could glimpse it very low to the northeast horizon, immersed deep in bright twilight, just before sunrise on July 1.

The comet arrived at perihelion on July 3, sweeping to within 27.7 million miles (44.5 million km) of the sun and is now heading back out to the outer reaches of space. Nonetheless, the comet continues to evolve and its tail continues to grow.

More:
https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visibility-july-2020.html?utm_source=notification