Sunday, July 19th, 2020

darkoshi: (Default)
This website shows the location of the comet in the sky based on the current date and time, compared to the stars and constellations (search on your location and then on that page, click the "Find Comet NEOWISE" link):
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/columbia

Currently it should be visible after sunset towards the northwest. Look slightly north of where the sun sets. Look for the big dipper and from there, lower towards the horizon.

The comet visualization on the above page's sky-map makes it look very bright, but it isn't.

Based in this page, it's brightest magnitude was(?) expected to be about 2; we are now on the part where the magnitude is waning:
https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info#brightness

The below page shows it as currently 1.8 (more negative numbers are brighter)
https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info

The upper right star in the Big Dipper's dipper is Dubhe, with a magnitude of 1.79.
https://theskylive.com/sky/stars/dubhe-alpha-ursae-majoris-star

The lower right star in the Big Dipper's dipper is Merak, with a magnitude of 2.37.
https://theskylive.com/sky/stars/merak-beta-ursae-majoris-star

So I'd expect the comet to be similar in brightness to them, or fainter.

By comparison, Saturn and Jupiter, which are easy for me to see towards the southeast, are 0.9 and -2.75:
https://theskylive.com/saturn-info
https://theskylive.com/jupiter-info

I haven't had any luck seeing the comet myself so far, due to light pollution where I live, cloudy or hazy skies, and possibly not an unobstructed enough view of the northwest horizon.

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