A rare, green comet not seen in the night sky since the time of the Neanderthals made an appearance in the sky this month.
It’s nearly time to bid farewell as C/2022 E3 (ZTF) gets fainter in the sky as it zooms away. However, there is still time to see it if you look in the right place.
Geometrically, Comet ZTF has passed its closest to both the Sun and the Earth and is now headed back to the outer solar system.
Its orbit around the Sun had it gliding across the northern sky all month, after passing near Polaris and both the Big and Little Dippers last month.
Now below naked-eye visibility, Comet ZTF can be found with binoculars or a small telescope and a good sky map.
A good time to see the comet over the next week is after the Sun sets but before the Moon rises.
At its closest, it came within roughly 26 million miles of the earth. That’s equivalent to more than 109 times the average distance between the Earth and the moon.
Source: Read Full Article