Celestial The Sky This Week from November 10 to 17: Catch Comet Lemmon

[Seeker22]

The Sky This Week from November 10 to 17: Catch Comet Lemmon​

Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) passes closest to Earth late today, coming within 0.19 astronomical unit, or AU, of our planet. (One AU is the average Earth-Sun distance of 93 million miles [150 million kilometers].)

That means the comet will be at its brightest for the next few days; it’s recently been reported at 6th magnitude but may brighten even more — up to 5th magnitude or so, by some estimates. This puts it squarely in easy binocular range, and it’s up most of the evening in a moonless sky — excellent conditions for nabbing it.

Tonight, Comet Lemmon is in Hercules, which sits just below the bright star Vega (currently the lowest of the three points in the Summer Triangle asterism) in the west after sunset. The region is slowly setting but, thanks to the early sunsets at this time of year, remains visible until around 10:30. /snip

The Sky This Week from November 10 to 17: Catch Comet Lemmon

 

[Seeker22]

Visible tonight. Saw thead was posted already, right as I hit post. Am on cell, merge with existing thread please.

 

[Firebird]

Wish I could see it, but we have heavy tree cover and can't see anything that isn't directly overhead