Green comet 2023 – live: How to see E3 in sky tonight before it disappears forever
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) comet is visible with the naked eye from certain locations
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Your support makes all the difference.A green comet is flying past Earth for the first time in 50,000 years, offering skygazers a one-off opportunity to witness the celestial spectacle before it disappears from our Solar System forever.
The C/2022 E3 (ZTF) comet made its closest approach to Earth on 1 February, 2023, but will continue to be visible throughout the week from anywhere in the northern hemisphere – weather permitting.
At a relatively close 42 million kilometres (26 million miles) from our planet, and with a brightness value of the magnitude of about +6, it will be possible to see it with the naked eye.
The comet is so rare that woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats were still roaming the Earth when it last swept by our planet.
To find out where in the sky to look, and learn when conditions are best for viewing the comet tonight and over the next few days, you can follow our live coverage in the blog below.
Live stream of green comet to be hosted by The Virtual Telescope Project
The UK and Ireland are almost completely covered by cloud this evening, while large parts of the US will also find it difficult to see the green comet as winter storms sweep across the southeast.
Fortunately for those unable to witness Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF in the night sky, the Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting a live stream as it passes overhead. The project, setup by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy, consists of several robotic telescopes around the world that offer free views of the universe that are available for all to watch.
You’ll be able to find the live stream here when the broadcast begins in a few hours.
What impacts how bright a comet is?
According to Nasa, “how bright a comet appears depends both on what we can predict, how close it is to the Earth and how close it is to the Sun, and on what we cannot predict, how much gas and dust it is giving off.”
How green comet appeared over California
Where to look to see the green comet this week
Wednesday night will be the worst night all week for people in the UK and Ireland to see the green comet, with the British Isles completely covered in clouds. However, the coming days will see the skies clear a bit, with forecasts from the Met Office suggesting that Friday will perhaps offer the best chance for many.
Here’s where to look in the night’s sky over the coming days:
Wednesday, 1 February: Look towards the constellation Camelopardalis
Thursday, 2 February - Saturday, 4 February: Between the constellations Camelopardalis and Auriga
Sunday, 5 February: The green comet will be near the star Capella in the constellation Auriga, however the full Moon may obstruct the view
Details on the green comet
Green comet seen from the island of Gran Canaria,
Timelapse shows green comet moving across the sky
This is one of the best timelapses of the green comet I’ve seen so far. It perfectly illustrates how it moves across the night’s sky.
Captured by astrophotographe Matt Graves, you can see just how far it travels in less than an hour. Hopefully we’ll be getting more like this from some of the big observatories in the coming hours and days.
You can watch it here:
Share your photos of the green comet
If you have any photos of the green comet, you can email me (anthony.cuthbertson@independent.co.uk) or share them with me at @ADCuthbertson on Twitter (my DMs are open) and I’ll post them here.
Green comet sightings hampered by cloud on Wednesday night
Weather forecasts from the Met Office suggest that viewing conditions for the green comet tonight in the UK and Ireland will be terrible.
Shortly after sunset, clouds rolling in from the Atlantic will nearly completely cover the British Isles, leaving only a sliver of clear skies in eastern Scotland. Even that won’t last for long, with the early morning of hours on Thursday seeing rain and cloud over all of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Here’s how the sky will look at 4am on the morning of Thursday, 2 February, according to the latest weather forecasts:
Watch the green comet drift across US sky
Footage posted to Twitter by Christopher Becke in Williamsburg shows the green comet in the sky above Virginia.
The amateur astronomer said the comet’s movement was captured by taking a series of 60 second exposures and stitching them together to create the video.
“10 minutes of comet E3 drifting among the stars (brightness due to some passing clouds),” he wrote.
Timelapses are a great way to get a sense of the green comet’s movement in relation to the stars and constellations in the background.
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