We have another brightish comet gracing our skies at the moment and this is C/2022 E3 (ZTF). The Comet is currently in the constellation of Bootes and heading north towards Draco (see the graphic by Pete Lawrence in this article by the Sky at Night magazine). It is currently about 6th magnitude and so it is approaching naked eye visibility.
On Sunday morning (the 15th January) I had woken up early and not been able to get back to sleep, so I went to see if I could find this comet. We had clear skies and it wasn't difficult to locate using 7x50 binoculars as it was roughly halfway between the stars Beta Boo and Eta Her. Not wanting to go outside and endure the sub-zero temperatures, I decided to try and make a drawing of what I could see but I had to lie on the floor to get a decent view. This is what I saw:-
The stars 2, 4 and Chi are part of Hercules and Nu 1, Nu 2 and Phi are part of Bootes. The comet is the smudge near the centre of the field. I started the observation at 4:34 UT and finished at 5:22 UT. There was a last quarter moon shining in the south and so the sky wasn't that dark. I compared the comet to M13 (a globular star cluster in Hercules) which is visual magnitude 5.8 and I thought it was fainter than this but perhaps twice the area. The comet was estimated to be magnitude 6.5 at the time.
All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2023
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