A rare green comet is passing through our solar system for the first time in 50,000 years, and over the weekend, Bay Area stargazers may have the best chance of seeing it in the night sky.
The comet, designated C/2022 E3 (ZTF), was the first discovered It was named the Zwicky Transient Facility, where it was identified last March by astronomers Frank Masci and Bryce Bolin at San Diego State’s Palomar Observatory in Jupiter’s orbit. The comet made its closest approach to the Sun in January. 12, and is now on a path that will bring it closest to Earth — about 27 million miles away — in February. 2.
Paul Lynam, an astronomer at the Lick Observatory in Mount Hamilton, told SFGATE that it’s unlikely that anyone in the Bay Area will be able to see the comet with the naked eye due to light pollution. with the help of binoculars that offer a wider field of view.
Lynam witnessed the comet from the observatory around 9pm on Wednesday and advises people to look for it by scanning the northeastern night sky between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
“What I observed with a cheap pair of binoculars was an elongated, diffuse object that was more diffuse and slightly brighter than the star,” he said. “It looked like a lady’s hand fan open at just under 90 degrees.”
If you can’t see it right away, don’t give up.
“Comets are already known to change their appearance quite quickly from night to night,” Lynam said. “If you can see it, you can tell it’s moving relative to the background stars, and if you’re lucky, you can see the morphology—the shape and structure of the tail.”
Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, said the comet even has two tails — one of gas and one of particles. He still believes that observers “in very dark sky areas away from city lights” will be able to see it without visual aids until the first few days of February. After that, the comet will remain in the night sky, but as it moves over the southern hemisphere, it will become increasingly difficult to see from the United States.
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the sky over Molfetta, Italy, before sunrise around 6 a.m. in January. 24, 2023. It last passed Earth 50,000 years ago, when Neanderthals still lived at our latitudes. The comet was discovered in early March 2022 and was initially thought to be an asteroid.
NurPhoto via Getty ImagesDavid Prosper, administrator of the night sky network at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in San Francisco, told SFGATE that despite its name, observers should not expect the green comet to approach the sky in vivid, shamrock-colored hues.
“The funny thing is that even though it’s called a green comet, the color is not noticeable unless you magnify it well,” said Prosper, administrator of the NASA Night Sky Network. “People seem to report a certain green color when looking through telescopes 6 inches or larger, but everyone’s eyes are different. Photos show green easily.”
Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that can affect the appearance of a comet. Prosper told SFGATE that the moon is expected to get brighter over the next week, and National Weather Service meteorologist Dalton Behringer said the chance of scattered rain in broken stratus clouds Saturday and Sunday night could hamper spotters.
“If people are really trying to see it, they can go to higher ground and get above the cloud layer,” Behringer said.
That being said, Thursday and Friday night might be your best bet. Later this week, stargazers can get even better luck by heading to the Chabot Space and Science Center, which plans to host free telescope viewing Saturday and Sunday evenings from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. 3 and 4. The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers are planning a public star party this Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Presidio Parade Grounds.
Lynam and McKeegan also suggested looking at Jupiter, which will appear as one of the brightest lights in the western sky—if you have a pair of binoculars, you might even be able to view the planet’s four orbiting moons. Mars will also appear glowing orange or red.
Whatever you find among the stars, it’s worth a look, because a comet’s orbit is unpredictable and it could take thousands of years before it returns.
“We cannot say for sure what the comet’s orbit will be. Once it arrives, it could be ejected from our solar system entirely,” Lynam said. “It may take thousands of years, or it may never come back.”
