2023-09-11 19:01:00
Spotted only a month ago, the bolide of gas and ice which crosses the Solar System will be as close as possible to the Earth this Tuesday, before heading towards the Sun. To observe it, you will have to be up around 5:30 a.m.
It was only a shooting star, for a short month, before evaporating into the confines of the Solar System. But this Tuesday morning, in the early hours of the day, Comet Nishimura will be closest to Earth, observable with the naked eye.
Early this morning I witnessed this glorious ☄️ – Comet Nishimura C/2023 P1 pic.twitter.com/cFBgyGrjOm
— KRL (@KennethLerose) September 10, 2023
125 million kilometers away
By comparison, we must of course put it into perspective, 125 million kilometers all the same for the one whose official name is C/2021 P1, identified for the first time on August 11 by a Japanese amateur astronomer, Hideo Nishimura. It then crossed in the constellation Gemini, visible only to instruments when it is discovered, low on the horizon in a direction close to that of the Sun.
“This area of the sky is not scanned by automatic telescopes,” explains Sky and Space, because it is too close to the Sun, which leaves the field open to amateur astronomers. In scouting this area, Hiedo Nishimura applied a strategy that has paid off in the past; the great Hyakutake comet of 1996 was discovered, for example, by another Japanese amateur.” He himself had already isolated two others previously, in 1994 and 2021.
A little to the left of the Shepherd’s star
Since it was spotted, Nishimura has continued to gain in intensity, until it has become observable with a small telescope, or even simple binoculars, since this weekend in the Northern Hemisphere. Always in the early morning, around 5 o’clock.
Currently in the constellation Leo, it will “graze” us this Tuesday then move away, getting closer to the Sun to less than 35 million kilometers, at the risk of being dislocated by the gravity of our star.
This Tuesday, you will need to be up about 2 hours before sunrise, scheduled for 7:27 a.m. “We will have to look for it near the horizon,” explains Le Point, “in the direction of the northeast,” a little to the left of the Shepherd’s Star. To help you find it, linternaute recalls the existence of mobile applications, Star Walk 2 and Sky Tonight, in particular.
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