Blawgg

This comet is now in Leo, near Saturn, and visible for most of the night. It’s supposed to be fairly easy to spot, given the 180 degree angular distance from the sun, and its long tails. I couldn’t find it with a 10x binocular, and a 20x refractor scope. I did look around where its supposed to be, but probably a magnification of 50x or so is required at least, to make out the hazy tail and ascertain it’s not a star. Also Delhi’s ambient city light spreads out to about 50 degrees up from the horizon, making it impossible to spot stars below 4 or 5 magnitude.

Here is a pdf showing the comet’s trajectory over the next few days: click

(Its easy to spot Leo and Saturn after about 9 PM – look east where the sun rises, then crane your neck up about 40 degrees. There should  be 3 bright stars – the lowest red one  is Saturn (well planet not star), and the top two which appear in a line parallel to the horizon are from the Leo constellation, the right one being Regulus. That’s where the comet is around (see pdf).

Here are regular followups by various astronomers  : click