posted 3 years ago
I finally caught a glimpse of the Comet NEOWISE tonight. Been trying for four days now but it was too low over the horizon and the residual light from the setting sun was still too bright. Tonight was a little hazy but the comet was high enough in the sky to be visible just over the trees in my neighborhood. I could barely make it out through the haze but I definitely saw the tail which looked like a faint smudge going upwards to the right from the head. As a bonus, I also caught the ISS flying over through the handle of the Big Dipper. Seems a lot bigger and brighter now than it was a couple of years ago as far as I can recall. (EDIT: It must have been the angle. Watched it flyover again a couple of hours later but at a lower angle and it was much fainter than before. It made another lower flyover by the time I went to sleep. Pretty amazing to think how fast it's going.)
Comet NEOWISE will be at its closest approach to the Earth on July 21st (still quite a few million miles away though) and will be visible until August. Catch a glimpse while you can--it won't be back in this corner of space for another 6500+ years.
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