Any Good Comets Visible For Small Telescopes?

[David Totney]

The last really good comet I saw was Neowise hanging in noctilucent clouds early on a Sunday morning in July 2020. I was out with my 72ED DS Pro Evostar and concentrating more on other things. I only saw it when I stood up and started to walk back to my house. It has left a huge impression on me. I know comets this bright are rare, but are there any in the night sky at the moment visible with small aperture refrctors?

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

[Nick James]

Hi David,

I had a great view of that comet and NLC too on the night of Friday/Saturday, 2020 July 10/11. That night was one of the best observing experiences of my life. A stunning naked-eye comet and really dynamic and bright NLC.

Sadly we don’t have anything like that at the moment. The brightest comet around in the northern sky is probably C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It is around 13th mag at the moment so probably too faint for a small telescope but we hope that it will reach 6th magnitude in late January next year when it will be moving rapidly across the sky under the pole.

The best places to go to get an idea of the current state of comets in the sky is Jonathan Shanklin’s site here:

https://people.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/

and our Comet Section image archive here:

https://britastro.org/cometobs/

For the latest images of C/2022 E3 scroll down to near the bottom of the list and then click on the “gallery” link.

We’re always happy to receive observations of comets so please let me know how you get on.

[David Totney]

Hello Nick,

Yes, it was an incredible sight alright. At that time I was actually out two early mornings in a row. I probably missed it the first morning as I was concentrating on Mars IIRC. I only saw NEOWISE when I walked back to my house for a drink of water. I put my hand on the door handle and glanced northwards. At first I don’t think my brain really registered it. I eventually realised that it was NEOWISE. I’d looked for it earlier with no success. It did give me a chance to use my Lumicon comet filter! Thanks for the links. I’ll try to find C/2022 E3 in January if the weather allows it.

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

[Daryl Dobbs]

This site I find quite good for seeing what is visible in the night sky

https://theskylive.com/

[David Totney]

Thanks Daryl, I’ve bookmarked the link.

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

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