Email (required) * Constant Contact Use. Comet Nishimura swings by for binoculars and telescopes

From - Sky & Tellescope,

By - Alan Macrobert,

Edited by - Amal Udawatta

Comet Nishimura (2023 P1) by Michael Jaeger Sept. 5, 2023 — Comet Nishimura on the morning of September 5th, on its way in. The comet is the green bit at left. The star cluster at upper right is the Beehive. The brilliant light at lower right is Venus. Right-click image to open higher-res version in new tab. Michael Jäger took this view "from my observatory in Martinsberg, Lower Austria." It's a stack of eight 30-second exposures he made using a DSLR camera with a 50-mm lens at f/2.5.

Comet Nishimura swings by for binoculars and telescopes. Comet Nishimura (2023 P1), discovered just last month, is brightening toward its September 17th perihelion.

The comet starts this week very low in the dawn sky. You'll need a low view to the east-northeast on the mornings of September 9th, 10th, and maybe 11th. The farther north you live the better. The waning crescent Moon won't pose interference.

By the 13th or 14th the comet shifts to the low evening sky, just above the west-northwest horizon during early to mid-twilight. Day by day it will move leftward, but no higher, to stand barely over the west horizon on its perihelion date, the 17th. This is also its predicted date of peak brightness — possibly 2nd magnitude, not counting the ill effects of bright twilight and atmospheric extinction that low.

Given those factors, will it ever be even slightly visible to the naked eye? Time will tell. So will very clear air. See Bob King's New Comet Nishimura for more info and finder charts. More news is also in his update.

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