<story><title>Newly discovered comet Nishimura could be visible to naked eye this weekend</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/07/nishimura-comet-could-be-visible-to-naked-eye-this-weekend</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>joshuahedlund</author><text>Whithout expected magnitude, Useless to know whether I can see it bright like Venus in the city or if maybe I might be able to make out a smudge with binoculars if I drive an hour out of town…&lt;p&gt;Found details on spaceweather.com:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; There is a bright comet in the morning sky. You probably can&amp;#x27;t see it with the naked eye, but even short exposures with digital cameras are picking up the starlike head and long tail of Comet Nishimura (C&amp;#x2F;2023 P1)&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Comet Nishimura is plunging toward the sun for a close encounter inside the orbit of Mercury on Sept. 17th. Increasing heat is causing it to brighten rapidly. Latest estimates of the comet&amp;#x27;s brightness place it at magnitude +4.5. In a dark sky, this would be visible to the unaided eye, but the morning sky is not dark. Cameras are required to observe the comet; a few seconds of exposure time are enough for a very nice picture.</text></comment>
<story><title>Newly discovered comet Nishimura could be visible to naked eye this weekend</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/07/nishimura-comet-could-be-visible-to-naked-eye-this-weekend</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>BossingAround</author><text>This is off topic, but can I just say, the universe, and its vastness, is absolutely incomprehensible and awe inspiring.&lt;p&gt;For example, the distance of earth to moon is ~380 000 kilometres (or ~238 000 miles), depending of course on the current phase of the moon&amp;#x27;s orbit. This is just about enough to stack all planets in our solar system and put them side by side between Earth and moon. The combined diameter of all planets in our solar system is ~384 000 kilometers [1].&lt;p&gt;For fun, the longest flight on earth seems to be Singapore to JFK, which covers ~15k km (or 9.5k miles), which takes us 19 hours. Just in case you want a toy scale to realize how far the big bright object you can commonly see in the sky is.&lt;p&gt;And what&amp;#x27;s crazy is when you realize that our whole galaxy is just a spec of dust in the scale of the universe.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;futurism.com&amp;#x2F;you-can-fit-all-of-the-planets-between-earth-and-the-moon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;futurism.com&amp;#x2F;you-can-fit-all-of-the-planets-between-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>