Comet C/2017 K2 broke records when it was discovered in 2017. It is now closer to Earth and can be seen with small telescopes.
Frankfurt – Discovered in 2017, but now comet C/2017 K2 (PanStarrs) is of interest only to observers on Earth. The reason: on July 14, 2022, the comet, dubbed K2, reached its closest position in its orbit to Earth, and is very easy to observe from Earth – and this is still possible until the fall, As dad wrote.
Comet K2 dealt the blow: When it was first spotted by the PanStarrs telescope system in Hawaii in 2017, it was thought to be the farthest comet discovered on its journey into the interior of the solar system. At the time, it was between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus – 1.5 billion miles from the Sun. It is now in the inner solar system and is nearing its closest point, about 270 million km from Earth. Since then it has continued to fly towards the sun. The comet will reach its closest point to the sun, called perihelion, on December 19, 2022.
Comet C/2017 K2 (PanStarrs): When and How to Best Monitor Comets
This is good news for observers in the northern hemisphere: With a small telescope, the comet will be visible all summer long. However, the best time to observe is not the day of the nearest situation – the day before It’s the biggest full moon of the year (giant moon) in the sky, and took difficult notes because of the brightness. A few days later, the moon rises after midnight, so the sky becomes darker and the comet is better closed.
But how do you find the culprit? It can be found in the south after dark. It remains in the constellation Ophiuchus until about the end of July, after which it moves near the star Acrab in the constellation Scorpius. Around mid-September, in the dark, it no longer rises so high above the horizon that it can be seen properly. Free astronomy software and applications such as “Stellarium”, “SkySafari” or “Star Walk” can be used to pinpoint the exact location of a comet.
