I am enormously excited about the next week or so. There are two reasons for this.
First, next weekend I have been allocated some time on one of the telescopes at the University of Canterbury’s Mount John Observatory. Three nights observing under pitch black skies using one of the largest telescopes in New Zealand is always something any keen stargazer anticipates with relish.
But there’s a second reason I am particularly looking forward to my time atop Mount John. By coincidence, a comet, possibly bright enough to see with the naked eye, will become visible in our northern sky during my time at the observatory.
It was discovered on March 2 last year using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). ZTF is a 1.2-metre telescope on Palomar Mountain in California that surveys the sky on a nightly basis.
When the comet was discovered, it was a long way from the sun and very dim. Over the intervening months, it has brightened as it approached its closest point to the sun in January.
For most of the time since it was found the comet has been invisible from the southern hemisphere.
C/2022 E3 was closest to Earth on February 1 and, by the end of next week it starts to become visible in our northern sky after sunset.
This week’s chart shows the comet’s path during the next couple of weeks. The celestial icy ball of rock is slowly moving through the constellation Taurus, the bull.
On February 12 if predictions are right, the comet should be visible just to the right of Mars. If you can’t see it with the naked eye it will undoubtedly be visible as a green smudge of light using binoculars.
The last time this comet passed through our part of the solar system was during the stone age, some 50,000 years ago.
Astronomers calculate that following this visit it will leave the solar system, never again to be seen by human eyes.
