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| Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE was visible of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in the early hours of the morning - Images taken with a Canon 600d DSLR tripod mounted.Capella is the bright star above and to the right of the comet. Credit: Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert. |
Bright comets, visible to the naked eye are seldom visitors to the night sky. Comet 2020 F3 NEOWISE became visible in the Northern Hemisphere quite recently. It is the brightest Comet since Hale Bopp graced our skies in the 1980s. It is a very beautiful object and displays a visible tail at least as long as two Moon diameters. The Jodrell Plank team had been out imaging the planets Saturn and Jupiter with the Observatory 'mini-scope-rig'. When they completed their imaging session, they decided to check the sky to the North of the Visitor Centre and were surprised to see the bright comet low under Capella the alpha star in the constellation Auriga. The comet may be seen without any visual aids but looks particularly beautiful through the observatory wide-field binoculars. If you are a night owl and the weather is kind why not take a look low in the north. Night by night it will move further west and by the end of the month it will sit in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear) and under the 'Plough' asterism. Towards the end of July, it will be visible in the evening as well as in the early morning and will be closest to the Earth at a distance of 64 million miles. The comet's nucleus made up of dust, ice and organics is estimated to have a diameter of 5 kilometres and the dust tail covers some six degrees in the sky. The comet is now on its way out of the Solar System and will not return for 7000 years. Catch-it while you can this is an exceptional event" - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory
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