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.