
For those at northerly latitudes, Comet NEOWISE up in the evening now, too - iamben
https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-comet-c2020-f3-neowise
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js2
I was a fourteen year-old astronomy geek for Halley's Comet in 1986. What a
complete dud it turned out to be.

This comet is amazing. Get out and see it while you can!

Here’s a picture of it this morning in Raleigh, NC (not my picture):

[https://i.imgur.com/qKXjHnU.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/qKXjHnU.jpg)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/hpsv6f/comet_c2020...](https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/hpsv6f/comet_c2020_f3_neowise_bracketed_by_the_raleigh/)

~~~
blinding-streak
Good intentions here but I think this is a little misleading. That photo
almost certainly is a long exposure shot that enhances the visibility of the
comet. That same poster also posted this image, which is what it looks like to
the naked eye (i.e. it barely registers):

[https://i.imgur.com/2Il4yJN.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/2Il4yJN.jpg)

I too remember Halley's comet viewing -- my dad was super excited to see it.
It was underwhelming.

Comet Hale–Bopp though, in 1995, was awesome.

~~~
echelon
Comet Hale-Bopp was one of the most magical sights I've ever witnessed. You
could see the long, majestic trail with your own eyes, entirely unaided. No
binoculars, telescope, or long exposure needed. It was huge, and it stayed
with us for awhile.

Hale-Bopp felt like a celestial dragon or an ethereal god that came to visit.
I spent hours outside looking at it. It was mesmerizing.

NEOWISE is pitiful in contrast. I'm hoping I get to see another comet like
Hale-Bopp in my lifetime. It made me understand why ancient societies ascribe
such meaning to astronomical events.

The other remarkable space event in my life was the total solar eclipse a few
years back. The entire world changed for a moment, and the corona was like a
glittering chromatic jewel suspended in the sky. I will travel wherever the
next total solar eclipse takes me - they're not to be missed.

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neilwilson
Saw it over the rooftops from my bedroom window at the weekend. Wonderful.

Topped a great week. All the main planets were strung across the early morning
sky like Christmas lights.

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FraKtus
In Belgium, because of the light pollution, it's impossible to see it with the
naked eye.

I could, however, catch a short time-lapse of it with my camera:

[https://youtu.be/tq_CEIFzh70](https://youtu.be/tq_CEIFzh70)

Something I don't get is that the comet will come closer to earth in the next
days; however, the astronomy sites say it will lose intensity. How can that be
possible?

~~~
kwoff
The comet is getting farther away from the sun.

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dnautics
Article claims it's binocs only, but I have seen it with the naked eye two
mornings in a row (09 and 10 July).

~~~
contravariant
I could see it with the naked eye in a severely light polluted area but this
was after confirming its location with binoculars, I'm not confident I would
have found it otherwise.

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dfee
I followed earthsky for sometime, and then stopped. Now I’ve been following
Universe Today. The author is intelligent, but something is lacking - and I’m
not sure what.

Can others provide a list of review of RSS worthy space blogs?

~~~
tunap
I like Portaltotheuniverse.org's rss feed. Always something interesting to
read.

[https://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/rss/all](https://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/rss/all)

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Faaak
For those curious about the first image [0] and it's caption ("Gianluca Masi
of the Virtual Telescope Project captured Comet NEOWISE on July 7, 2020, along
with the International Space Station (dashed line)")

The dashed line is not the ISS but a plane. The ISS doesn't blink ;-)

[0]: [https://earthsky.org/upl/2020/07/Gianluca-Masi-comet-
NEOWISE...](https://earthsky.org/upl/2020/07/Gianluca-Masi-comet-NEOWISE-Rome-
Italy-7-7-2020-e1594141387754.jpg)

~~~
sdflhasjd
The dashed line may be an artefact of how such a long exposure is captured -
where multiple shorter exposures are taken and stacked on top of each other.

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thewebcount
For some reason the charts showing when and where to see it are missing from
the page for me. This is with no ad blockers installed, oddly enough. . I'm at
33° N., so I'll check out the morning sky for now, but would like to get more
detail about when to see it.

~~~
_Microft
Try wolframalpha.com, enter e.g. "Comet NEOWISE Berlin, 4a.m." (no quotes,
replace Berlin with your location and the time with the time you want to
watch) and scroll down until you see an image of the sky with the position of
the comet on it.

Good luck and enjoy!

~~~
MandieD
It interpreted “Neowise” as a reference to the one that was discovered in
2014. To get the right one, “Comet C/2020 F3 Berlin, 4am”

~~~
_Microft
Thanks for catching that!

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8bitsrule
The location of'neowise' is shown in Stellarium today (near the Moon) for
those using it.

~~~
pacaro
I've always been a fan of Heavens-Above for this kind of thing...

[https://www.heavens-
above.com/SkyChart.aspx?lat=47.6&lng=-12...](https://www.heavens-
above.com/SkyChart.aspx?lat=47.6&lng=-122.2&loc=HN&alt=0&tz=PST)

[https://www.heavens-
above.com/comet.aspx?cid=C%2F2020%20F3&l...](https://www.heavens-
above.com/comet.aspx?cid=C%2F2020%20F3&lat=47.6&lng=-122.2&loc=HN&alt=0&tz=PST)

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BooneJS
My daughter and I found a hill outside of the city. We could barely make out a
smudge in the sky with bare eyes, but binocs and dSLR managed to capture it.
Fun!

~~~
BooneJS
Here's the best image we could get:
[https://imgur.com/a/ZOmP3k4](https://imgur.com/a/ZOmP3k4)

~~~
uncleberg
Excellent!

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usr1106
Northerly latitudes is relative. Here at over 61 deg N it does hardly get dark
these days. So sky watching is still on hold for a couple of months.

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jcun4128
Hypothetically... if you wanted to launch a rocket from the ground and catch
this thing... not gonna happen?

~~~
nwallin
It has a retrograde orbit, and its orbit is highly inclined as well. You would
have to fight against the Earth's orbit to catch up to it, and would have
negligible opportunities for gravitational assists.

Every probe to the outer solar system has leveraged multiple gravitational
assists. These would be off the table. Basically your only options is building
a super monster rocket and force your way to it based entirely on pure thrust.
The rendezvous maneuver would be a monster as well.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but you're probably looking at assembling
something in orbit if you _really_ want to go visit the thing.

~~~
jcun4128
Thanks for the info, I figured as much but good to know more details. "Alright
guys, you have the entire world's money, let's do it".

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tilt_error
Northerly latitudes? The sun doesn’t set so how am I supposed to see this?

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aaron695
I don't get why every Starlink launch, every comet, every ISS or GPS flare I
have to download another app / spend ages trying to track down how to see it.

Isn't there like a Monkey script I can grab to add to an app that people can
just post?

I do guess it creates some sense of adventure having to seek it out.

