Rare Green Comet Is Hurtling Toward Earth: How To See Nishimura In VA

VIRGINIA — Skygazers in Virginia still have a few opportunities to see a newly discovered green comet hurtling along a path that will take it close to Earth and the sun before it disappears for another 400-plus years.

Comet Nishimura, discovered Aug. 11 by Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura, is already visible from Earth, but will make its closest approach to our planet on Tuesday. But the best chances to see it may be Sunday, when it makes its closest approach to the sun and reaches peak brightness.

The National Weather Service’s seven-day outlook calls for showers Tuesday night, partly cloudy skies Wednesday night, then clear skies Thursday through Saturday nights, and partly cloudy on Sunday evening.

During its close approach to Earth, the half-mile-wide comet will still be 78 million miles away. It’s visible to the naked eye, but “you really need a good pair of binoculars to pick it out and you also need to know where to look,” Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, told The Associated Press.

To see the comet, look toward the northeastern horizon about an hour and a half before dawn. Weather conditions permitting, the comet will be about 10 degrees above the horizon near the constellation Leo. The comet will brighten as it gets closer to the sun, but will drop lower in the sky, making it tricky to spot.

Related: 2023 VA Guide To Meteor Showers, Supermoons And Full Moons

Virginia State Parks has four parks designated as International Dark Sky Parks by the International Dark-Sky Association: Staunton River, James River, Natural Bridge and Sky Meadows.

Other sports for star-gazing include: Assateague Island National Seashore, Grayson Highlands State Park, James River State Park, Meadows of Dan, Natural Bridge State Park, Natural Chimneys Park, Rappahannock County Park, and Shenandoah National Park, according to Space Tourism Guide.

The comet will come closest to the sun — closer than Mercury is — on Sunday before departing the solar system. That's assuming it doesn’t disintegrate when it buzzes the sun, though Chodas said “it’s likely to survive its passage.”

Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, told AP in an email that this week represents “the last, feasible chances” to see the comet from the Northern Hemisphere before it’s lost in the sun’s glare.

“The comet looks amazing right now, with a long, highly structured tail, a joy to image with a telescope,” he said of the rare green comet.

It’s unusual for an amateur to discover a comet these days, given all the professional sky surveys by powerful ground telescopes, Chodas said, adding, “this is [Nishimura’s] third find, so good for him.”

The comet last visited about 430 years ago, Chodas said. That's about a decade or two before Galileo invented the telescope.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.