COMET

Mark your calendars.

Comet ZTF is making its closest pass to earth over the first couple of days of February. If you’re trying to catch a glimpse of the once-in-50,000-year event, it’s going to take some work.

The comet is the expected to make its closest pass of Earth sometime between Feb. 1 and 2, possibly even sooner sometime at the end of January.

It's been a long time, but a recently discovered comet will soon make an appearance in the night sky.

There are always noteworthy things to look up for on any given night, but these are the top events worth marking in your calendar as we venture through the new year.

UTICA, N.Y. – The stars aligned for a New York couple on their engagement night, providing a picture-perfect moment that was out of this world. John Nicoterra proposed to his girlfriend, Erica Pendrak, Saturday night in Utica. Nicoterra told Pendrak that he wanted to view the rare comet NEOWISE before it disappeared on Thursday. During the viewing, Nicoterra got on one knee and proposed, and a friend of the couple snapped a picture of the special moment, with NEOWISE on full display. The photo, which has been shared thousands of times on social media, shows the comet between the happy couple.

ORLANDO, Fla. If youre not an early riser and want to get a glimpse of the rare Comet NEOWISE, you are in luck! While the comet wont appear as vibrant as it does in the photo, it is the brightest comet the Northern Hemisphere has seen in more than ten years. NEOWISE is visible to the naked eye, but you may want to have a pair of binoculars on hand to help initially locate the comet. For the remainder of July, Comet NEOWISE will rise higher in the northwestern sky. Comet NEOWISE will get higher in the evening sky through the rest of July.

The excitement surrounding newly-discovered Comet NEOWISE wasnt as intense but had the some potential to become visible to the naked eye early in July. NEOWISE survived its trip around the sun and is currently visible in the morning sky to the unaided eye. The Comet NEOWISE or C/2020 F3 is seen above Cered, Hungary, Monday, July 6, 2020. You may need binoculars initially to locate the comet, but should be able to see it with the unaided eye after location. During the next revolution I tried to capture the C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) comet a bit closer, the brightest one over the last 7 years.

A few weeks ago, Comet ATLAS showed all the promise of the next great comet, coming into view at the end of April. ATLAS, named after being discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, was found in late December. The famous Halley’s Comet is a short-period comet that comes by every 75-76 years. Comet ATLAS can be found with a good pair of binoculars or telescope by locating the Big Dipper and Camelopardalis in the northern sky. “I basically narrate over that and tell people about the weeks coming up, what you can see in the sky,” Mayo said.