Comet Update 7/13/2020

Comet 2020 F3 is making the promised rise in the Northern sky. It shows no sign of breaking up. It is approaching its closest point to Earth and should hold its brightness until then.

Figure 1: Orbit of Comet 2020 F3 generated by JPL Small Body Database Orbit Diagram Widget. Augmented and annotated by your humble narrator.
Figure 2: The “standard” graphic for my updates

Now is your chance.

The comet is as bright as can be expected.  It is coming into a position where it should be visible in the early evening sometime in the next week or two.  Infra-red observations indicate that the nucleus of the comet is about five kilometers (three miles) across, so it is not likely to fall apart.  The brightness should be comparable to the stars of the Big Dipper, at least.

Sky Maps for July 13 through 17 (from SpaceWeather.com) are linked here: 

Morning sky maps: July 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; Evening sky maps: July 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Here is another SpaceWeather.com photo taken by Petr Horálek on July 12, 2020 @ Seč, Czech Republic

Figure 3: Petr is using time exposure here so this may be better than you might see. He claims that he rowed out while leaving his expensive camera taking photos automatically and didn’t realize he had drifted into the field of view. I think this was posed, since his oars were out of the water long enough for the ripples to have died down.

Clear Skies!

Steve

SpaceWeather.com https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=165446

COBS:  https://cobs.si/analysis

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