![]() Lemmon Observatory north of Tucson, Arizona. There should be a noticeable difference in position.Ĭomet Leonard was discovered by astronomer Alan Leonard on January 3, 2021, using the 1.5-meter Cassegrain telescope at the Mt. ![]() After ten minutes or so, look at the position of the comet again. Once you find it, make a note of where it is. The comet is going very fast, over 250,000 km/h however, it doesn’t look like it’s going fast because it is very far away. Stellarium has a mode that projects the three rings of a Telrad sight on the simulation, so you can determine what way you need to move your scope and by how much to find objects. The details will be at a link on our show notes. You need to point the software at an updated source of orbital elements since this is a new comet, and Stellarium makes this a simple process. ![]() This is a powerful tool for planning observing sessions, and it includes plugins for plotting different objects, from asteroids to satellites. To track this comet through the sky over the next year, you can use the free astronomy software Stellarium. You can get a Telrad sight from Amazon and support citizen science by using the Amazon affiliate link in the show notes for this episode. You can get more bases to use the same Telrad on different telescopes. It’s simple to attach to your telescope, using an adhesive base. The Telrad has a reticle with circles at half a degree, two degrees, and four degrees, illuminated by a red light so you won’t lose your night adaptation. Tomorrow, December 3 in the morning UTC, the comet will be less than a degree from Messier 3, a bright globular cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici.Ī Telrad finder sight can help you find the comet and many other objects using the concept of star hopping, going from one bright star to other dimmer stars so you can find your deep-sky target. As the days go on, it will continue heading horizonward. Comet Leonard will be in between the last handle star and Arcturus. To find it this week, look between the end of the handle of the Big Dipper asterism towards the bright star Arcturus, or as they’d say in a planetarium, arc to Arcturus. If you remember last spring’s Comet C/2021 F3 NEOWISE, this comet will be like a slightly fainter sibling as it nears unaided visibility and becomes an easy binocular or small telescope object as it gets closer. This week in What’s Up is not another moon phase or meteor shower, but a comet - specifically Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard. IMAGE: Simulation of the position of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) on the morning of December 3rd.
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