8 tips to observe the comet Leonardo, the new “Christmas star” who will visit the Earth – Observer

Prepare your mobile phone with sky charts to observe the night sky. Apps like Star Walk are available for free on both Android and iPhone, and more Sites Things like The Sky Live have been updated precisely so users can use them to find the comet Leonard. With Star Walk, point your cell phone at the sky and move it like a compass: the comet’s scientific name will appear on the screen, along with the name C / 2021 A1 or Leonard – the nickname of its inventor. Astronomer Gregory J. Leonard. Consider the constellations that appear in this celestial table: Comet Leonard will appear in the Sagittarius galaxy between December 15 and 20; Then it will appear in the microscope galaxy until Christmas Day.

Escape from the cities. There are two main features to keeping an eye on Leonardo’s comet: having a horizon without buildings in the southwest, the direction the comet appears on the horizon, and escaping light pollution caused by city lights. Leonard is ashamed: from 14 until Christmas Eve he will rise above the horizon, but not much. Finding a clear one, it is best to turn southwest and look from right to left, more precisely from southwest to west: that is where the comet is running (yes, it is hovering in the sky).

Get some binoculars with the aim of zooming in at least 50 millimeters and 10 times. It will not be so difficult: they are available at all prices, and they are also found in hypermarkets. The truth is, Leonardo, despite being a good light show a few days before Christmas, has a much more sensible brightness than the comet Niovis showed in the middle of the epidemic summer of 2020. The latter is one of the brightest comets. The comet Hale-Pop has reached 1 Richter scale in the Northern Hemisphere since 1997. But Leonardo is much less vibrant and much less light, being at 5 levels this time around, so now, the brighter an object appears, the smaller it is. Its magnitude value: The zero point is the star Vega, whose brightness is used as a particular. If Neovice revealed 40% of the brightness of the Vega star, Leonardo is at 1%.

I wanted to share this level of comparison between the comet Leonard and the comet Newowice. Picture of Rutger Bus (find him on Instagram and Facebook).

Leonard is a gentle beauty! NeoWise God is a firecracker! pic.twitter.com/NO9I4BtQc0

– Ronan Hunt (@ RonanHunt88) December 14, 2021

Sika O Leonardo has no Twitter. Yes, even a frozen body 38 million kilometers away from Earth can be on social media: accounting @cometleonard The comet was created in January this year when it was discovered at the Monte Lemon Laboratory in Arizona, USA. From time to time, every day, the enthusiasts behind this page publish Tweets Leonardo’s distance from Earth, the amount of brightness it emits, and the number of galaxies that can see a comet. Additionally: Every day you choose “Three Magi” – three followers to be highlighted on the page.

I can see naked! I am 37.50 million km from Earth, my current size is 5.5. You can find me near the constellation Obiogus.
Please retweet and spread the word!#comet # cometc2021a1 #Wall Leonard # C2021A1 #FollowTheComet

– Comet C / 2021 A1 (Leonard) (@cometleonard) December 14, 2021

Allow 90 minutes before dusk on Christmas Eve. December 23rd will be the best time to observe the Leonardo comet with all its splendor, because until then the light will be lost and time will be available. Until the winter solstice is reached, on December 21st, the sun will set earlier and earlier – so the sunlight will be less and this Christmas will be a more productive time to watch the visitors. In addition, the comet will appear taller and taller in the sky, which means it will take longer to fade away from city lights and behind the horizon. If you had 30 minutes to see the comet unarmed on December 15th, you could already have an hour and a half on December 23rd. It can still be found at Christmas cost, until Christmas night. After that, it should become invisible. One year after its discovery, on January 3, 2022, it will reach its nearest perihelion to the Sun.