Dear Blogger
Message from Karen Smith, Little Ness Astrobemer.
Comet Section Director Stuart Atkinson writes:
"Exciting news – Comet NEOWISE F3 survived its perihelion passage around the Sun and is now bright enough to be seen with the naked eye from mid-northern latitudes. And it is reported to be a 'lovely sight' in binoculars and telescopes too, with a tail that's a degree long and split down the middle.
The comet is still very low in the sky before sunrise, but gaining a little in altitude every day and will soon be visible in both the morning and the evening sky, low in the north. Experienced observers are estimating its magnitude to be around zero, with some estimates putting it as high as –1, but with the summer sky so bright and the comet still so low accurate measurements of its brightness are difficult at best. We'll need to wait a few more days probably before we can safely make reliable magnitude estimates, and then have some idea of what the comet will look like in the days ahead.
If we're lucky, Comet F3 will remain bright as it moves north-west, away from Capella and Auriga towards the stars of the Plough. If we're very lucky its tail will grow longer, and brighter, and it will become a more obvious sight in the sky, visible to everyone. Of course, it might begin to fade and furl its tail back up: we just don't know. The best thing to do is just get out there and look for it as soon as you can – don't leave it too long, you might miss it."
View maps on the Comet Section website:
https://www.popastro.com/main_spa1/comet/category/comet-news/
Here are links to Tweets showing photographs of the comet:
https://twitter.com/GuillaumeCannat/status/1279707656664616960/photo/1
https://twitter.com/AstronomiaRivas/status/1279707990984196098/photo/1
Plus one from the ISS:
https://twitter.com/ivan_mks63/status/1279466839823847426/photo/1
This story by Paul Sutherland includes a link to another photo from southern France by Dany Cardoen, who says that the comet was visible with the naked eye when two degrees above the horizon:
https://www.skymania.com/wp/bright-comet-appears-in-sky-before-dawn/
More photos are shown on the Spaceweather comet gallery:
