How to see comet E1 ATLAS high in the night sky in July near the Little Dipper

By Brett Tingley published about 12 hours ago

While not particularly bright, the comet will be fairly easy to spot for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers.




an illustration showing a comet near Ursa Minor, the little dipper
An illustration of comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS near Ursa Major on June 29, 2023. (Image credit: TheSkyLive.com)

A relatively newly discovered comet makes for a tantalizing skywatching target this summer.

Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS was discovered in March 2023 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which is funded by NASA and operated by the University of Hawaii. This array of four telescopes spread out in Hawaii, Chile and South Africa scans the sky for near-Earth objects in order to warn of any potential hazards heading Earth's way.

While not particularly bright, the comet will be fairly easy to spot for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers, high in the skies throughout the summer near Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper. Comet E1 ATLAS reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun, on July 1.

By the time July's new moon arrives on July 17, the comet will be approaching its maximum brightness and will have moved eastward toward the constellation Cephus, the Whale. If you go looking for the comet yourself, don't expect to see a bright green snowball with a well-pronounced tail; through most backyard optics, the comet will likely appear as a hazy, greenish smudge.

More:
https://www.space.com/comet-c2023-e1-atlas-little-dipper-how-to-see?utm_source=notification