02/03/2023 – Ephemeris – Space Rocks with Joe Brooks

This is Ephemeris for Friday, February 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:54, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:58. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 7:54 tomorrow morning.

Space Rocks with Joe Brooks, will be presented by, the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society’s own meteorite expert, Joe Brooks, at this evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. He even has a meteorite of a type called Howardite, that the Dawn spacecraft, which orbited the asteroid Vesta, has determined to be from there. Everyone is welcome. And there is a Zoom component to attend remotely. A link and instructions will be found on the society’s website, gtastro.org. This year, again, the society will be teaming up with the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for star parties this late spring, summer, and early fall.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

02/02/2023 – Ephemeris – It’s Groundhog Day again

This is Ephemeris for Groundhog Day, Thursday, February 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:52, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:59. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 7:16 tomorrow morning.

I’m not sure if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow this morning or not, but February 2nd was a special day to the ancients. It is also Candlemas day for the Catholic Church. It is also celebrated as a cross-quarter day. The middle of the season of Winter, though the exact date of the middle of winter is the 4th. And if Phil sees his shadow, and we do get 6 more weeks of winter, that’s OK too. By the calendar, it’s actually more like 6 ½ weeks to the vernal or spring equinox and the official end of winter. Of the other cross-quarter days, only one stands out today. It’s May 1st, May Day. The way this year has been going, winter has had a hard time getting started. The temperatures are above normal and the snowfall below normal.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Poor Punxsutawney Phil, rousted out of his mid winter nap. They might be in the middle of a blizzard today. Credit: http://www.fuzzytoday.com

02/01/2023 – Ephemeris – Let’s find where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, February 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:00. The Moon, halfway from first quarter to full, will set at 6:31 tomorrow morning.

Let’s find where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. Very early after sunset. Venus can be spotted low in the southwest by 6:30 pm. Mars, and Jupiter will be visible this evening by 7 pm. Mars will be above Orion in the southeast and is pulling away from the Pleiades. Jupiter will be in the southwest. Saturn is way below Venus now, so it’s gone until it reappears in the morning sky in a few months. It will make the crossing to the morning sky with its solar conjunction on the 16th. Mercury is now in the morning sky. It has a few more days visibility around 7 am in the southeastern sky after reaching greatest western elongation from the Sun last Sunday.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Venus low in the west-southwestern twilight at 6:30 pm tonight, February 1, 2023. Created using Stellarium.

Evening planets at 7 pm tonight, February 1, 2023. The orange line is the ecliptic, which is the plane of the Earth’s orbit. The sun appears on that line throughout the year. Notice that all the other planets are very close to that line. That is an artifact of the accretion disk from which the planets formed some 4 1/2 billion years ago. The planets still maintain the nearly same plane for their existence to this day. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.

The gibbous Moon tonight at 7:00 pm, labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.

This is what Mercury might look like in the southeast around 7:20 tomorrow morning, February 2nd from Interlochen/Traverse City. At that time, it’ll be 5 degrees above a sea horizon, which is half the width of a fist held at arm’s length. Any trees of course will reduce it. Created using Stellarium.

The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on February 1, 2023. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 2nd. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.

01/31/2023 – Ephemeris – Previewing February skies

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 5:49, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:02. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 5:36 tomorrow morning.

February is the shortest month, even so, the daylight hours throughout the month will be getting longer. Daylight hours will expand from 9 hours and 49 minutes tomorrow the first, to 11 hours and 6 minutes on the 28th. The sunrise time will drop from 8:02 tomorrow to 7:22 at month’s end. The sunset times will extend from 5:51 tomorrow to 6:28 on the 28th. Along with that, the altitude of the Sun at local noon will increase from 28 degrees tomorrow to nearly 38 degrees at month’s end. Local noon, by the way, for Interlochen and Traverse City, when the Sun is due south, will be 12:57 p.m. at mid-month. Venus and Jupiter will appear to approach each other all month, in the western evening sky, coming into conjunction March 1st.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

February Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for February 2023, (9 p.m. EST February 15, 2023). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST in the evening and 6 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th, subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

February Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for February mornings, 2023 (6 a.m. EST February 15, 2023). No naked-eye planets are visible. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations, click here.

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
• Extend like a spike to Spica,
• The Summer Triangle is in red.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2023-02-01	6h22m	6h57m	18h56m	19h30m	5h37m	6h22m	0.89
2023-02-02	6h21m	6h56m	18h57m	19h31m	–	–	0.94
2023-02-03	6h20m	6h54m	18h58m	19h32m	–	–	0.98
2023-02-04	6h19m	6h53m	19h00m	19h34m	–	–	1.00
2023-02-05	6h18m	6h52m	19h01m	19h35m	–	–	1.00
2023-02-06	6h17m	6h51m	19h02m	19h36m	–	–	0.98
2023-02-07	6h16m	6h50m	19h03m	19h37m	19h37m	19h58m	0.95
2023-02-08	6h15m	6h49m	19h05m	19h39m	19h39m	21h03m	0.90
2023-02-09	6h14m	6h48m	19h06m	19h40m	19h40m	22h08m	0.83
2023-02-10	6h13m	6h46m	19h07m	19h41m	19h41m	23h14m	0.75
2023-02-11	6h11m	6h45m	19h09m	19h42m	19h42m	–	0.65
2023-02-12	6h10m	6h44m	19h10m	19h44m	19h44m	0h24m	0.55
2023-02-13	6h09m	6h42m	19h11m	19h45m	19h45m	1h36m	0.44
2023-02-14	6h07m	6h41m	19h12m	19h46m	19h46m	2h52m	0.33
2023-02-15	6h06m	6h40m	19h14m	19h47m	19h47m	4h07m	0.23
2023-02-16	6h05m	6h38m	19h15m	19h49m	19h49m	5h18m	0.14
2023-02-17	6h03m	6h37m	19h16m	19h50m	19h50m	6h03m	0.06
2023-02-18	6h02m	6h35m	19h18m	19h51m	19h51m	6h02m	0.02
2023-02-19	6h00m	6h34m	19h19m	19h53m	19h53m	6h00m	0.00
2023-02-20	5h59m	6h32m	19h20m	19h54m	19h54m	5h59m	0.01
2023-02-21	5h57m	6h31m	19h21m	19h55m	20h16m	5h57m	0.05
2023-02-22	5h56m	6h29m	19h23m	19h56m	21h34m	5h56m	0.12
2023-02-23	5h54m	6h28m	19h24m	19h58m	22h49m	5h54m	0.20
2023-02-24	5h53m	6h26m	19h25m	19h59m	–	5h53m	0.29
2023-02-25	5h51m	6h25m	19h27m	20h00m	0h03m	5h51m	0.39
2023-02-26	5h49m	6h23m	19h28m	20h02m	1h15m	5h49m	0.49
2023-02-27	5h48m	6h21m	19h29m	20h03m	2h25m	5h48m	0.59
2023-02-28	5h46m	6h20m	19h31m	20h04m	3h29m	5h46m	0.68

Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Feb  1  We            Venus: 24.4° E
     2  Th   3:18 am  Moon North Dec.: 27.5° N
     3  Fr   2:47 pm  Moon-Pollux: 2.1° N
     4  Sa   3:55 am  Moon Apogee: 406,500 km
     4  Sa   4:32 pm  Moon-Beehive: 3.9° S
     5  Su   1:29 pm  Full Snow Moon
    12  Su   2:31 am  Moon Descending Node
    13  Mo  11:01 am  Last Quarter
    14  Tu   1:09 pm  Moon-Antares: 1.9° S
    16  Th   9:36 am  Moon South Dec.: 27.6° S
    16  Th  11:17 am  Saturn Conjunction
    19  Su   4:06 am  Moon Perigee: 358,300 km
    20  Mo   2:06 am  New Moon
    22  We   2:57 am  Moon-Venus: 2.1° N
    22  We   4:58 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 1.2° N
    24  Fr   1:56 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    26  Su   9:42 am  Moon-Pleiades: 2.2° N
    27  Mo   3:06 am  First Quarter
    27  Mo  11:32 pm  Moon-Mars: 1.2° S
Mar  1  We            Venus: 30.6° E

All event times are given for UTC-5:00: Eastern Standard or Daylight Time

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

     LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
February, 2023    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed  1| 08:02a  05:51p  09:49 | 06:57p  06:55a |      Set  06:31a   88%|
|Thu  2| 08:00a  05:52p  09:51 | 06:58p  06:54a |      Set  07:16a   93%|
|Fri  3| 07:59a  05:54p  09:54 | 06:59p  06:53a |      Set  07:54a   97%|
|Sat  4| 07:58a  05:55p  09:56 | 07:01p  06:52a |      Set  08:24a   99%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  5| 07:57a  05:56p  09:59 | 07:02p  06:51a |Full  Rise 05:47p  100%|
|Mon  6| 07:55a  05:58p  10:02 | 07:03p  06:50a |      Rise 06:53p   98%|
|Tue  7| 07:54a  05:59p  10:05 | 07:05p  06:49a |      Rise 07:58p   95%|
|Wed  8| 07:53a  06:01p  10:07 | 07:06p  06:48a |      Rise 09:02p   91%|
|Thu  9| 07:52a  06:02p  10:10 | 07:07p  06:47a |      Rise 10:07p   84%|
|Fri 10| 07:50a  06:04p  10:13 | 07:08p  06:45a |      Rise 11:14p   76%|
|Sat 11| 07:49a  06:05p  10:16 | 07:10p  06:44a |      Rise 12:23a   67%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 07:47a  06:06p  10:19 | 07:11p  06:43a |      Rise 01:36a   57%|
|Mon 13| 07:46a  06:08p  10:21 | 07:12p  06:41a |L Qtr Rise 02:51a   46%|
|Tue 14| 07:44a  06:09p  10:24 | 07:14p  06:40a |      Rise 04:07a   36%|
|Wed 15| 07:43a  06:11p  10:27 | 07:15p  06:39a |      Rise 05:18a   25%|
|Thu 16| 07:41a  06:12p  10:30 | 07:16p  06:37a |      Rise 06:19a   16%|
|Fri 17| 07:40a  06:13p  10:33 | 07:17p  06:36a |      Rise 07:07a    8%|
|Sat 18| 07:38a  06:15p  10:36 | 07:19p  06:34a |      Rise 07:44a    3%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 07:37a  06:16p  10:39 | 07:20p  06:33a |      Rise 08:13a    0%|
|Mon 20| 07:35a  06:18p  10:42 | 07:21p  06:31a |New   Set  06:54p    1%|
|Tue 21| 07:34a  06:19p  10:45 | 07:23p  06:30a |      Set  08:15p    4%|
|Wed 22| 07:32a  06:20p  10:48 | 07:24p  06:28a |      Set  09:33p   10%|
|Thu 23| 07:30a  06:22p  10:51 | 07:25p  06:27a |      Set  10:49p   18%|
|Fri 24| 07:29a  06:23p  10:54 | 07:27p  06:25a |      Set  12:02a   27%|
|Sat 25| 07:27a  06:24p  10:57 | 07:28p  06:24a |      Set  01:15a   37%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 07:25a  06:26p  11:00 | 07:29p  06:22a |      Set  02:24a   47%|
|Mon 27| 07:24a  06:27p  11:03 | 07:30p  06:20a |F Qtr Set  03:29a   56%|
|Tue 28| 07:22a  06:28p  11:06 | 07:32p  06:19a |      Set  04:27a   66%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Created using my LookingUp for MS-DOS output as HTML.

01/30/2023 – Ephemeris – Two planetary events are happening today

This is Ephemeris for Monday, January 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 5:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:03. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 4:34 tomorrow morning.

Today, the planet Mercury was seen as far away from the Sun as it can get for this time of year in the morning sky. It’s called “greatest western elongation”, and it’s distance from the sun and angle is 25 degrees. It’s going to stay pretty close to that for about the next week or so, it’ll be visible if it ever clears up. This is about the latest time one can see Mercury morning elongations this for this time of year. We’re running out of the correct angles for it. This evening, if it’s clear, the planet of Mars will appear near the waxing gibbous Moon. Early on in the evening Mars will be to the upper left of the Moon, which will be approaching it by about its own diameter every hour, until about 1 o’clock in the morning when Mars will it’s closest above the Moon it should be a striking sight.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Mercury, brighter than it would appear with orbit, created by Stellarium. Mercury is going up, left and down in a counterclockwise motion.

The Moon and Mars as created in Stellarium for 12:50 am tonight, January 31, 2023. Mars will actually appear less bright compared to the Moon than it appears here.

01/27/2023 – Ephemeris – Where is comet ZTF this weekend?

Here’s the next 4 nights of Comet ZTF. It is for 3 am on the dates posted, rather than moonset. Full moon is a coming, which will pretty much wipe out the comet. Then we can wait for dark skies once again. The tail rendering simply suggests the direction of the ion tail, blown away from the sun. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts), labeled with LibreOffice Draw.

This is Ephemeris for Friday, January 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 5:44, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 1:08 tomorrow morning. | Comet ZTF is now passing the star Kochab in the Little Dipper and is heading out to the barren wastes of Camelopardalis, the giraffe, which I’m sure not very many people have heard of because there’s no bright stars in it. The big question people have is why this comet was supposedly green. It is not particularly rare, even though the news reports I’ve seen of it and in social and main media seem to have intimated this. And they also say it comes around every 50,000 years or that it’s the only green comet and it comes every 50,000 years which is incorrect. There’s a certain amount of hype that comes with comets. They can be spectacular and they can be duds. I remember back in 1973 a large new comet was supposed to zip around the sun and be super bright called comet Kohoutek people my age might remember that. It was a pretty much dustless comet. I it’s the dust tail it really makes comets bright, not the ion tail of ionized gasses.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

01/26/2023 – Ephemeris – Where’s Comet ZTF tonight?

Comet ZTF finder chart for 12:01 am, January 27, 2023, shortly after moonset (evening of the 26th). The tail rendering simply suggests the direction of the ion tail, blown away from the sun. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts), labeled with LibreOffice Draw.

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, January 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 5:44, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 1:08 tomorrow morning.

Comet ZTF is now passing the star Kochab in the Little Dipper and is heading out to the barren wastes of Camelopardalis, the giraffe, which I’m sure not very many people have heard of because there’s no bright stars in it. The big question people have is why this comet was supposedly green. It is not particularly rare, even though the news reports I’ve seen of it and in social and main media seem to have intimated this. And they also say it comes around every 50,000 years or that it’s the only green comet, which is incorrect. There’s a certain amount of hype that comes with comets. They can be spectacular, or they can be duds.

I remember back in 1973 a large new comet was supposed to zip around the sun and be super bright called Comet Kohoutek, people my age might remember that. It was a pretty much dustless comet. It’s the dust tail that really makes comets bright, not the ion tail of gasses. A few years later, Comet West came by for the Bicentennial in early 1976. As the comet came around the sun near perihelion, its solid nucleus started to break apart, liberating a vast dust tail. It was wonderful.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Comet C/1975 V1 (West) photographed around 6 am, March 8, 1976. The image is tilted due to the camera being on an equatorial mount for a latitude near 45 degrees north. The constellation to the upper right is the summer constellation of Delphinus the Dolphin. I had to dig my telescope mount out of the snow drift that surrounded the house to mount a small telescope to make the shot. I almost ran out of time.

This post is actually longer than I have time for the Ephemeris program (59 seconds). I created this speech to text, due to my current physical and mental problems, it’s more stream of consciousness than my normal writing. So if it still makes sense, I’ll leave it in.

01/25/2023 – Ephemeris – Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 5:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:08. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:42 this evening.

Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. Very early after sunset, Venus might be spotted very low in the southwest by a little past 6 pm. Mars, and Jupiter will be visible this evening, in the east to southwestern sky by 6:30 or 7 pm. Mars will be above Orion in the east-southeast and is pulling away from the Pleiades. Jupiter is brighter than Mars, and will be in the south-southwest, and tonight it’s directly above the crescent Moon. Saturn is below Venus now, so it’s pretty much gone until it reappears in the morning sky in a few months. Mercury is now in the morning sky, after it passed inferior conjunction with the Sun on the 7th, that is, it passed between the Earth and the Sun. It should be briefly visible before sunrise by month’s end.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

All the evening planets before Venus sets are in this panorama looking southward from east to west at 7 tonight, January 25, 2023. I dropped lines from some of the dimmer constellations. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.

The waxing crescent Moon, tonight, January 25, 2023, as it might be seen in binoculars or a small telescope. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw and GIMP.

Telescopic views of Venus, Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. The image of Mars doesn’t show it, but the white north polar cap will appear at the top or north limb of Mars. The planets are shown at 7 pm tonight, January 25, 2023. Apparent diameters: Venus 10.95″; Jupiter 36.63″, Mars 11.38″. Mars’ distance is 76.5 million miles (123.1 million kilometers). The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on January 25, 2023. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 126th. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.

\

01/24/2023 – Ephemeris – The “green” comet’s designation is C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 5:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:09. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 9:26 this evening.

Yesterday, I began covering new comet that’s in our skies. I didn’t mention its name. It’s got an odd one. Its designation is C/2022 E3, which means it was discovered in 2022. E means that it was in the 5th half month of the year, which puts it in early March, and three is the third object in that period. The name that goes along with it is actually the initials ZTF which stand for Zwicky Transient Facility which is actually 2 observatory complexes, one in California and the other one in Chile which looks for things that go bump in the night. Basically, things that change their brightness or movement in the short period of time. They cover the whole sky eventually and get back and see what’s changed. The facility is named after astronomer Fritz Zwicky.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The track of Comet ZTF from tonight at 9 pm to January 30, 2023. Two constellations are named. The unnamed constellation line running through the image is the tail of Draco the dragon. The red dots are galaxies, much dimmer than the comet. The depiction of the comet’s tail simply suggests the direction of the tail. Comet positions are set for 9 pm on the dates shown. For each position, the date and magnitude are shown as in “mm-dd mag”, the year is omitted. Magnitudes are very subjective.

01/23/2023 – Ephemeris – New “green” comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, January 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 5:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:10. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 8:05 this evening.

I’m sure that many of us have now heard of a bright new comet that’s supposed to be visible in our sky that’s green. One, it is a newly discovered comet from 9 months ago. Two, it is green. Three, it won’t look green to the eye. And four, it isn’t really that bright. One of the rules of I have in mentioning objects to observe on this program is that it has to be found with the naked eye. This comet does not meet that criteria. One could find it with binoculars when it’s near a bright star which it’s not tonight, so that’s one thing but in order to see it, it will probably look like a little fuzzy blob in a pair of binoculars. I’m not sure that the tail that would be visible. The observer has to wait until after the moon sets, because moonlight washes out a comet, big time.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Comet ZTF finder chart for 1/24/23 through 1/29/23 at 9 pm. Plotted daily at 9 pm EST, though the best time to spot the comet will be after moonset which will advance by about an hour a night. The plot of the comet’s tail simply suggests a direction and not the appearance of the tail. Created using Cartes du Ciel. (Sky Charts). The plots are marked with the month-day and expected magnitude or brightness. Magnitudes are like golf scores. The larger the number, the poorer the golfer, and the dimmer the celestial object is.