Courtesy Pixabay
Early-morning risers may enjoy a celestial sight: a newly-discovered comet, visible right now. This week, we can view Comet Neowise in the early morning, around sunrise., with the comet highest above the horizon around this Saturday, July 11th, with the best viewing between 4:00 AM and 4:30 AM. Look to the Northeast to see the comet. Next week, Comet Neowise is best seen in the evening hours, right around and after local sunset, in the low Northwest horizon. Best nights to view will be July 12th through the 15th.
Comet Neowise was only discovered back at the end of March of this year. On March 27th, the
Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope first detected the comet.
Now, unlike Comets ATLAS and SWAN, Neowise survived passing closely by the sun, and is now fairly close to Earth, before returning to outer space. NASA says that Neowise is one of the few ‘naked-eye’ comets of the 21st Century.
So…for your enjoyment, a new-to-us comet. The comet can be seen by the naked eye, but a telescope would be better. Even a pair of binoculars would be helpful.
However, we do have a photo of Comet Neowise to show you, courtesy www.nasa.gov:
