HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – We’ve been talking about observing Comet NEOWISE for about a week and you may also have noticed two of the brightest planets to see in summer, Jupiter and Saturn. Tonight, we also have two passes from the International Space Station.
Depending on your location and the extent of your view of the sky, all four objects will be visible at the same time between 10:00 pm and 10:05 pm. For most, it will be difficult to detect them all at the same time. If you have an excellent, unobstructed view from northwest to southeast, you may be in luck.
COMET NEOWISE: visible after sunset looking northwest.
- Sunset: 8:37 pm
- It is not likely to be visible until after 9:30 p.m. M. Once the sky darkens a little
- Comet NEOWISE will establish itself, so it will decrease on the horizon between 10 and 10:30 pm and then disappear
- You may need binoculars to detect it. As the sky darkens and you can pick the Big Dipper, Comet NEOWISE will be right below that.
- Comet NEOWISE now has two visible tails, making it a pretty spectacular sight.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: STEP 1
- 10:00 pm visible for 6 minutes – start looking west-northwest and it will rise quite high in the sky as you travel northeast
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: STEP 2
- 11:38 pm visible for 5 minutes – start looking west-northwest, but will stay lower, closer to the horizon as you travel north-northeast
PLANETS:
Saturn and Jupiter are at their brightest at this time and can be seen every night. Planets become visible as the sky darkens enough after sunset. Look in the south-southeast part of the sky. The planets are rising, so they will get quite high in the sky later in the night. You can also see 4 of Jupiter’s moons. Jupiter has 53 moons, but NASA says scientists believe Jupiter can have up to 79 moons.
We can only see the 4 largest moons, called Galilean moons. Io, Europe, Ganymede and Callisto. On rare dark nights, you can see all 4 moons with the naked eye, but they can be easily seen with a telescope or zoomed in on a camera.
These photos were taken just a few days ago.
We would love to see your Comet NEOWISE photos, you can send them here:
More than anything, just enjoy the view. Hopefully some clouds won’t spoil anything. The sky is going to be clear tonight. Happy viewing!
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