With so much to experience this month, try observing Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) each clear night, no matter the Moon or light pollution. Rivaling the brightness of summer’s M13 cluster at 5th magnitude, according to astronomy.com, ZTF could be “the best comet of the year.” It’s visible in the evening, has two tails, changes shape, and it really moves!
ZTF zips at 6° each night as February starts, when it is closest to Earth. It shifts obviously in just 10 minutes at the eyepiece. The comet then appears to decelerate to 3° per night by the 8th and slows to 1° each evening as March opens. It’s all a trick of perspective.
The comet sails through photogenic dark lane starfields by Friday the 10th and passes Mars, which lies at twice ZTF’s current distance. For Perseverance, the 6th-magnitude comet appears 2° from magnitude –2 Earth in the martian sky.
Small scopes from the suburbs should show a narrow fan of dust getting broader as ZTF fades by a couple of magnitudes into New Moon. Switch to country skies if you can. Twelve-inch scopes ought to reveal some green in the coma, while imagers might get a blue gas tail lining the sharply defined south edge.
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