There’s a comet visible this week. It’s a special sort, only just discovered, and visible to the naked eye. It’s just a little blur, but the tail is quite visible with a decent pair of binoculars. It won’t be back for another 6000 years or so, so you should catch the sky to the north west just after sunset in the next few days as you won’t get another chance.
It reaches it’s closest approach to Earth around the 22nd and for the next week the tail will be lit by the sun beneath the horizon, so you can see its comety glory. To find it, draw an imaginary line between a spot just north of where the sun sets on the horizon and the big dipper. It’ll be somewhere along that line and it will be a little higher in the sky each evening.
Alas, as it has been very low to the horizon the last few evenings I haven’t seen it since the clouds are plentiful after sunset right now, but they drew back just long enough for me to get a few shots tonight. I was set up for the stars with my 20mm lens, and had no idea I’d be able to catch it so clearly, but I got lucky. Maybe I’ll try the 105 tomorrow night and get a little more up close and personal.
These were taken around 9:30 PM Pacific, and are about 5 second exposures. Two crops to show the comet, and one uncropped to show how wide the actual frame was.
And, while we are at it, shall we comment on how ridiculously sharp the Nikkor z 20mm f1.8 is?
