Attention Des'55

[Dubbag]

Please excuse my misinformation the other day regarding the comet view.

This from BBC......

A bright green comet is set to swing by Earth's outer space for the first time in 50,000 years, and may hang around for a month.

NASA officials said the icy visitor was first spotted in March 2022 while it was inside the orbit of Jupiter.
It could be seen through binoculars as a small green glow to those in the Northern Hemisphere starting on Thursday.
It will be closest to Earth on 2 February, scientists said.

"Comets are notoriously unpredictable, but if this one continues its current trend in brightness, it'll be easy to spot," NASA said on its blog earlier this month.

"It's just possible it could become visible to the unaided eye under dark skies,"
The icy celestial body - called C/2022 E3 (ZTF), a "mouthful of a name", according to NASA - is making its closest approach to the sun on 12 January before making its closest approach to Earth on 2 February.
At that point it will be just about 26 million miles (42 million kilometres) away from the planet, according to the Planetary Society.

Full read here Des... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64252258

[WBA1955]

Cheers Dubbs, hope the skies stay clear. As well as my scope I have a powerful pair of field glasses as well to hopefully locate the position first.

[Dubbag]

So Desmondo...in this image below is the co-ordinates for 1st Feb 2023.
Locate North star (Polaris) easy enough. Your binos should pick it up easily in the two o clock position from Polaris. It appears to be developing nicely at the moment.
My great ancestor X 4,000 generations ago, said it is worth seeing.....


As we say in astronomy circles as a fond wish..."Clear skies to you my friend"

[Dubbag]

This guy is streaming an asteroid near miss on his YouTube site. Might be worth a watch.
The comet is a separate event. https://www.youtube.com/@GianMasiVirtualTelescope

[phild]

Rubbish skies in Oldbury West Mids up to at least 1st Feb as stargazing conditions are rated Poor in order to attempt to spot the green comet. If missed then Will only have to wait another 50,000 years before it comes round again.

[WBA1955]

Our back faces north and being in a rural location we get dark skies. However Wolverhampton lies to the north as well and that part of the sky usually has the glow of the distant town.
I have found it tends to be clearer around three or four in the mornings.

[Dubbag]

https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/

[kettering_baggie]

It’s a pity that the asteroid doesn’t land on the Kremlin, that would be divine justice.

[Dubbag]

It’s a pity that the asteroid doesn’t land on the Kremlin, that would be divine justice.

Funnily enough it was discovered last week by an astronomer in Crimea......

From BBC.....
This one was only picked up last weekend by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who operates from Nauchnyi in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

[kettering_baggie]

Even more satisfying if it landed on Russia!