Comet Leonard is continuing to brighten and this week is the best time to check it out.
A couple weeks back we took a look at Comet Leonard, 2021’s brightest comet.
RELATED: Watch the Skies: Comet Leonard
Since then, Leonard has continued to brighten and during that time it has reached magnitude 5.5, just below naked eye brightness. This coming week will be the best chance to catch Leonard as it moves low into the sunset sky before disappearing below the horizon and becoming a Southern-Hemisphere-only comet.
Leonard has been brightening almost exactly as expected as it makes its closest approach to Earth. Small telescopes all over the world have been observing the comet during the past week as it moved past the bright cluster known as M3 and several other galaxies. The image below was taken back on November 28 as the comet was brightening rapidly.
Right now, it appears as a decently bright comet in small telescopes or strong binoculars, although it is located in the twilight sky which makes it harder to pick out against the brighter sky. This will be the case until it disappears by mid-month. For the first part of the month it has appeared in early morning sky but as we go through this week it becomes visible after sunset below Venus, with the best visibility probably coming from December 16-18. On these mornings it will be as high as we will see it and at its brightest. It will be moving VERY quickly from right to left each night so it will be in a noticeably different place each day. On December 17 (Friday) it will be located directly below Venus, as seen below.
To see it just find a good, low western horizon and probably grab a pair of binoculars or small telescope. There is a real chance it will be naked eye visible by this point, but it won’t stand out greatly against the bright twilight. This is nothing like what we saw with Comet NEOWISE last year, and while it is the brightest comet of the year it won’t be anything particularly spectacular. That said, it is still absolutely worth checking out since there aren’t currently any bright comets coming any time soon.
Have a great week and good luck seeing Leonard!
And, as always, watch the skies!
