2023-09-09 08:30:00
If you have an old pair of binoculars gathering dust in the attic, now is the time to go look for them: starting this weekend, comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura will be visible to the naked eye from the Earth. The show is expected to last several days.
Coming from the confines of the Solar System, the comet will pass closest to our planet next Tuesday, before reaching its perihelion on September 17. It is unlikely that it will disintegrate, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. The comet will then be only 33 million kilometers from our star, or a quarter of the Earth-Sun distance.
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To observe it, you will have to get up early: very low on the horizon, the comet is only visible a little before dawn (following 5 a.m.). You will find it below and to the left of Venus, the famous “Shepherd’s Star”, in the direction of the rising Sun. You can also use a smartphone application (like Stellarium, Sky View or Star Walk) which will tell you its position in real time. If possible, try to choose a clear observation point, far from any source of light pollution.
With the naked eye, however, don’t expect to see anything other than a tiny dot. The ideal is to use binoculars or a telescope: the comet should then appear in the form of a greenish halo. To hope to perceive its tail, on the other hand, it is better to bring a telescope.
Discovered a month ago by an amateur astronomer
The observation of C/2023 P1 Nishimura is all the more exceptional as it was only discovered on August 12, by a Japanese amateur astronomer. A serious stroke of luck, especially since the comet was hiding in the halo of the Sun and Hideo Nishimura was only using a simple camera. Since then, astronomers have estimated its orbital period at 434 years. In other words: it has not been visible to the naked eye since Galileo (and had gone completely unnoticed at the time), and will not be visible once more before the middle of the 25th century – provided that it survives its new passing close to the Sun.
In any case, do not store the binoculars too far away: discovered last February by the Atlas telescope, the comet C/2023 A3 might well offer in October 2024 a spectacle worthy of the passage of the famous Hale-Bopp comet in 1997.
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#Space #observe #comet #Nishimura #weekend #sky
