Watch Comet NEOWISE as it comes closest to Earth tonight, here's how you can spot

Comet C/2020 F3, also known as NEOWISE, was discovered earlier this year by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope. While the comet was visible in the early morning hours before July 12, sky gazers can now witness NEOWISE after sunset until around 9:30 in the north-western direction. An excellent opportunity to witness comet NEOWISE, which will not be visible for the next 6,800 years, is on July 23 as it will be closest to Earth. 

How to spot it in the sky

• The comet will be visible after the sunset just south of the Big Dipper or ‘Saptarishi’ constellation. 
• NEOWISE can be witnessed with naked eyes, however, for a clear view, it is advised to use binoculars or a small telescope. 

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• The comet can be viewed till 9:30pm and the sky gazers will get approximately a one hour window to see it clearly. 
• One can also download stargazing app to figure out where one should look in the sky to view the comet. ‘SkySafari 6’ is one such app that can help in tracing NEOWISE. 

READ: Neowise July 21 Location: Here Is Where You Can See The Bright Comet In The Night Sky

Here are some of the pictures of comet NEOWISE from around the globe;

Comet NEOWISE 

The NEOWISE comet has been an intriguing site for several wanderers of the sky. It was first discovered on March 27, 2020, using a NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) space telescope. After its discovery, it was listed as C/2020 F3 which was located 312 million kilometres (194 million miles) from the sun. At a very faint magnitude of +17, it is considered to be 25,000 times fainter than the faintest star that can be glimpsed with the naked eye. 

It is believed that if Comet NEOWISE manages to remain brighter through this phase. The comet had its closest approach to the Sun on July 2 at 43 million kilometres. On July 23, the comet is expected to be closest to earth as it will streak just over 10 crore kilometres from the planet. This is when it will be visible in the Northern hemisphere right after sunset.

READ: Comet NEOWISE: Take A Look At Some Surreal Time-lapses Of This Celestial Phenomenon

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