Comet Nishimura

You might have seen some news or social media coverage of a comet that’s currently visible (barely) for just another couple of days. It’s Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) and if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere you might be able to see it in the morning sky just before sunrise for about the next two days. But heads up, that’s a BIG “might.”

Comet Nishimura is getting very close to the Sun, so the time it rises is just before the Sun rises, which means the sky is getting brighter and the dim comet is getting harder to see. On the other hand, the comet is also getting brighter, so it’s something of a race between the competing factors.

It will help a lot if you have a dark sky, so get away from the bright lights of your city. Of course you’ll need a sky that’s clear of clouds.

Comet Nishimura is rising about 5:AM local time now. The easiest way to track it is this iPhone app, which does nothing at all except show you where the comet is.

After September 12th the comet will be past the Sun from Earth’s viewpoint and will be in the evening sky, but only if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s very Northern Hemispheric-centric for the news and social media to say that it’s “gone” after that, but when was accuracy or the facts important to modern mainstream media, let alone social media clickbait sources?

I tried to go out to see the comet two days ago, on the morning of September 8th, but had no luck.

(Image from Comet Nishimura app)

This is a wide angle view from the 8th – as you can see, at 04:55 the comet was just rising. That however also assumes a flat horizon, which I don’t have, in addition to being in Los Angeles with all of its light pollution.

If you go out to look in the next couple of days the things you’ll notice that aren’t shown on the Comet Nishimura app are the Moon (dead center here, also moving closer to the Sun from our POV, at New Moon on the 14th), Venus (brilliant at the bottom, near the horizon), and Jupiter (very bright up at the top). This is just a marginal photo on my iPhone, but if you blow it up you can easily see Castor and Pollux just to the lower left of the moon and also in the Comet Nishimura app star map. That should let you orient yourself.

As you can tell, even if the comet had risen and could be seen through the marine layer haze and light pollution, there’s a big tree on the non-flat horizon where the comet’s supposed to be rising.

(Image from Comet Nishimura app)

Still no joy, even though I’ve moved to where I can peek through the gap between the trees and the house. If there was a comet or any sign of its tail there poking up over the horizon I couldn’t see it either with the naked eye or with my binoculars.

I hope you have better luck if you go comet hunting tonight or tomorrow! (Or if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere!)