Skywatch: The comet Neowise is beginning to fade from view – Tulsa World

Sunday: The comet NEOWISE is still in the sky, but is fading quickly. To see the comet, binoculars or a telescope are required. The comet is still located between the Big Dipper and Leo. To locate the comet, draw an imaginary line between the northwestern most star in the bowl of the Big Dipper, Dubhe, and the tail star of Leo, Denebola. The comet is located about halfway between these two bright stars, 33 degrees above the west-northwest horizon.

Monday: The first quarter moon occurs at 7:32 a.m. Two hours earlier, at 5:30 a.m., you might be able to catch a glimpse of Mercury in the eastern sky, five degrees above the horizon.

Tuesday: Not far from the moon tonight is a double star known as Zubenelgenubi Zubenelgenubi. Also known as Alpha Librae, it is of moderate brightness and easy to see even with the moon not far off. Binoculars will easily reveal this double star with one star about five times brighter than the second.

Wednesday: The moon sits five degrees above the star Antares tonight. Antares looks similar to Mars and both are currently about the same brightness. However, Mars will not rise until midnight, making it difficult to compare the brightness of both. If Antares was our sun, we still could not make a comparison, since Mercury, Venus, Earth and probably Mars would be inside this star.

Thursday: Tonight the International Space Station makes two passes through the sky. Since the ISS takes about 90 minutes to complete a single orbit, the space station is sometimes visible from the same spot twice. The first pass tonight begins at 9:11 p.m. when the spacecraft skirts along the northern to northeastern horizon for two minutes. The second pass begins at 10:45 p.m. in the northwest and rises straight up from the horizon for two and half minutes before disappearing into Earths shadow, 40 degrees above the horizon.

Friday: The International Space Station makes a long, bright pass through the northern sky tonight. It starts off in the north-northwest at 9:58 p.m., 10 degrees above the horizon, passing 10 degrees below the North Star before reaching its maximum altitude, 31 degrees above the northeast horizon at 10:01 p.m. The spacecraft will only be visible for a minute before it disappears into Earths shadow, 26 degrees above the east-northeast horizon.

Saturday: Tonight the moon is near the planet Jupiter. At 9 p.m., both objects are in the southeast with the moon three degrees below Jupiter. Saturn is also near this pair, only seven degrees to the east.

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Skywatch: The comet Neowise is beginning to fade from view - Tulsa World

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