I was so excited to see Kohotek.* I even have a special chair setup for my meteor shower watching. When it's cold I just bundle up in a quilt and sip hot chocolate while I'm watching.

Thanks for sharing this, Judi Lynn.





* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Kohoutek

If these people, reporters, told us what time zone they were assuming you are in.

If people around the world look to the west at sunset, whatever their time zone, they'd see the sun setting, sitting out there in the direction of space that the sun is in relative to Earth on that day.

Similarly, just before dawn, on a given day, people around the world could look to the northeast and they're looking out in the direction of space where there just might happen to be a comet.

Caveat: This may not be true at extremely high latitudes, beyond the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, at particular times of the year and what patch of sky you'd like to see, since the Earth itself might be in the way of that direction.

. . . orbital elements.

It seems that, if conditions are clear, the comet might be visible at about 5:55 a.m. Central Daylight Time. It seems to rise at roughly the same time as Venus rises, but the comet will be about 20 degrees north of Venus's location. So, when Venus is above due East, the comet should be about 16 degrees above that eastern horizon and 20 degrees to the north (or to the left) of Venus. The Sun is about 26 degrees below the comet, so you won't have a lot of time before things become too bright to see the comet: maybe until about 6:10 a.m., before it is impossible to pick out with a superzoom camera. I don't know if it will be visible to the naked eye tomorrow morning (06 Sept 2023) or not. [You can track all of this yourself with Stellarium, if you get used to its interface.]

Anyway, if you can download Stellarium and install it, it is a great program and it's free:

I'd love to see another one, but that would be a "twice in a lifetime" experience. Thanks for the info., Judi Lynn.

"toward the crescent moon and Venus"? Currently, the moon is waning gibbous, not crescent. And, it's visible near Jupiter, not Venus. Maybe the good professor is describing the location when best visible, on Sep 12.

This bozo will look in the direction of the moon, Jupiter, and Venus on his pre-dawn morning walks, hoping to see something resembling a comet. With urban background lighting around here, I have my doubts that I'll see it.

Anyway, "currently", look near Venus, forget about the moon. Supposedly, the comet is in the constellation Cancer.

I've never seen a comet. Mr. Femmedem and I will take a drive outside of town where there's no light pollution!

Hale-Bopp was clearly visible, even here in the city where there is massive light pollution.