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  • Bozz10mm

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    If you miss comet Neowise this time around, you can catch it again in 6,000 years or so. I've read that the best time to view it is about an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise in the Northwestern sky below the Big Dipper.
    Gun Zone Deals
     

    kbaxter60

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    If you miss comet Neowise this time around, you can catch it again in 6,000 years or so. I've read that the best time to view it is about an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise in the Northwestern sky below the Big Dipper.
    Good point. Wonder if the Covid will be gone?
    I looked tonight and could not see it. But we have a hill to our West and it may be blocking the view.
     

    skfullgun

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    In the woods...
    Too many trees in these piney woods for a clear view! I have to drive for miles for an opening and there aren't any streetlights to help old eyes at night - and plenty of varmints/deer on the roads!
     

    jordanmills

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    I finally saw the comet! Needed binoculars, but I'm pretty much in inner-loop Houston. If you're not in an urban area, it should be very easy to see without optics. Tonight it was in line with most of the stars in the big dipper (alcor, mizar, and merak).

    A spotting scope should show it very well. You'll want to zoom way out at first to locate it generally, then zoom in. It will look kind of like a small fuzzy white cloud. Make sure you focus in on a nearby star to make sure you're set right. The stars should look like little pinpoints when you are focused in correctly.

    https://theskylive.com/sky/constellations/ursa_major-constellation

    It's near theta ursa majoris (closer in from Talitha). It's in a line from several stars in the handle of the big dipper and the star almost at the end (alcor, alioth, megrez, and merak).
     

    jordanmills

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    It will look a lot like this. The comet is at the lame pink X. I rotated the image so it lines up with about how the horizon will be.

    upload_2020-7-18_22-14-15.png


    Note that it will have moved by tomorrow night. Probably more up and to the left, near the M in "MAJOR".
     

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    Younggun

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    You really have to be in a “dark zone” to easily spot the comet with the naked eye. And I mean dark zone in astronomy terms, not just outside of town. In a fairly dark area it’s visible after finding where to look if you got good eyes.

    It’s closer to 2.5 magnitude now, which is measured by total light output so a lower magnitude pinpoint can be brighter since the light reflected from the comet and its tail are factored.

    A pair of large objective (50mm) binoculars are probably the most convenient method. Find a bright Star or look at Jupiter (brightest thing in the night sky right now) to get the focus right before hunting the comet.

    The star map shown above is an excellent guide.


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    Younggun

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    Took this with my wife’s DSLR mounted one a 10” Dob Friday night. It’s not a great camera for the job since the chip size artificially crops the image but it wasn’t bought with astronomy in mind. Couldn’t find the tripod to attempt the shot with a standard lens.

    5 second exposure, 1600 ISO. Some editing on my phone since I haven’t run them through photochop to clean them up.
    e1e06867fd4be2b8f0d48da3b75a7f6a.jpg



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    jordanmills

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    You really have to be in a “dark zone” to easily spot the comet with the naked eye. And I mean dark zone in astronomy terms, not just outside of town. In a fairly dark area it’s visible after finding where to look if you got good eyes.

    It’s closer to 2.5 magnitude now, which is measured by total light output so a lower magnitude pinpoint can be brighter since the light reflected from the comet and its tail are factored.

    A pair of large objective (50mm) binoculars are probably the most convenient method. Find a bright Star or look at Jupiter (brightest thing in the night sky right now) to get the focus right before hunting the comet.

    The star map shown above is an excellent guide.


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    I'm seeing observed magnitudes reported around 1.6 as of yesterday. It's apparently a lot brighter than it had been expected to be.

    Last night, almost inside Houston's 610 loop and facing toward down town Houston near-ish the horizon, I could easily see all the stars in upper Ursa Major, like zeta/Mizar (mag 2.3), beta/Merak (2.37), and delta/Megrez (mag 3.3). Even given the dispersion across its apparent area, it shouldn't be too hard to see. On the other hand, it was very close to theta UMa
    (and much closer to the horizon), and I couldn't see that unaided.

    The 25x70 binocs probably helped too. :)
     

    Younggun

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    The app I have might not be accurate. It does seem to conflict with most other sources.

    At the same time Merak, Star at the bottom of the big dippers scoops, it magnitude 2.6 and is obvious to the naked eye. So I really don’t know. It’s definitely appears dimmer to me but with the way magnitude is calculated I’m not sure if the tail adds enough light to bring it up or not. Or maybe it’s just light on the horizon mind fucking me. Idk.


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    jordanmills

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    The app I have might not be accurate. It does seem to conflict with most other sources.

    At the same time Merak, Star at the bottom of the big dippers scoops, it magnitude 2.6 and is obvious to the naked eye. So I really don’t know. It’s definitely appears dimmer to me but with the way magnitude is calculated I’m not sure if the tail adds enough light to bring it up or not. Or maybe it’s just light on the horizon mind fucking me. Idk.


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    https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info

    This thing says that actual observed magnitude is recently 1.8. That seems to be regularly updated, as it said 1.6 yesterday.

    But looking at COBS (https://cobs.si/recent), the recent observations are just over 3. Either way, I should be able to see a mag 3 star from my back yard. So a mag 1.8 comet should be no problem. Except for the near horizon haze and glow.
     

    oohrah

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    The comet is now visible naked eye if you have a dark horizon to the northwest away from city lights. It is below the bowl of the Big Dipper, and moving higher to the left of the Dipper each day.
     

    jordanmills

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    The comet is now visible naked eye if you have a dark horizon to the northwest away from city lights. It is below the bowl of the Big Dipper, and moving higher to the left of the Dipper each day.
    Probably, but keep in mind that it has been getting dimmer for several days now, and will continue to get dimmer (from our perspective) for the next three thousand years or so.
     
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