Re: OT - NG Comet

The easiest way to find it is to look for the three stars in Orion's belt in the southeast sky. From there look much farther up in the sky and to the right for the Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster, a bright star cluster. The comet will be further up and to the right of that. If using binoculars it might be easier to lie on the ground as the comet is high in the sky. The Sky & Telescope map below will help to orient you.

The comet is supposed to be detectable with the naked eye but my sky wasn't dark enough for that (or maybe it is my worn out eyes). We were able to spot it through a pair of binoculars but a long exposure on the DSLR with a 70-200mm lens made for much better viewing. My shots were all taken between 7:00 and 8:00 MST. I'd say as soon as the glow of the sun in the western horizon is gone you should be able to see it. The moon isn't out right now in the evening so it make for good viewing.

I'm going to see if I can mount my camera to a tracking telescope today and see what kind of results I can get with long exposures.

Thanks for the comments.



Dave