By Stuart Atkinson

Published: Tuesday, 06 December 2022 at 12:00 am

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At the moment, Mars is definitely stealing the show, a bright red ‘star’ visible in the night sky throughout December.

But many amateur astronomers are already looking forward to something set to be visible in the sky early in 2023: a comet that, if it behaves itself, might become the first naked-eye comet since Comet NEOWISE delighted us all a couple of years ago.

C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a long period comet that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (hence the catchy name ‘ZTF’) on 2 March 2022, using the 1.2-m, f/2.4 Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar.

When it was discovered it was just a tiny, 17th magnitude smudge in Aquila, five times further from the Sun than Earth.

When astronomers crunched the numbers they found comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) would reach perihelion – its closest point to the Sun –  on 12 January 2023 and would then make a close approach to the Earth in early February 2023, when it might reach 6th magnitude.

Will C/2022 E3 (ZTF) be as bright as NEOWISE?

It’s important to say straight from the start that C/2022 E3 (ZTF)  will not repeat the memorable show NEOWISE gave us.

If it does reach a magnitude between +5 and +6 as comet observers are hoping – and that’s by no means guaranteed – it will probably only be visible without help from binoculars or a telescope from a dark-sky site, away from light pollution.

A long misty NEOWISE-like tail is unlikely too.

Instead C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will more likely look like a smudge in the sky, like someone has dipped their finger in chalk dust and dabbed it on a blackboard.

Having said that, E3 will be high in the northern sky when it’s at its best, and will be moving quickly too as it drifts past Polaris, the North Star.

So even if it doesn’t dazzle us with a banner-like tail, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will still be well worth looking for.

And who knows, it might have a surprise or two in store for us.

Where is C/2022 E3 (ZTF) at the moment?

Having been visible in the evening sky through late summer and autumn, E3 is, as of early December, now a morning object for northern observers, visible in the hours before dawn as a tiny 9th magnitude smudge through telescopes, close to the border between Serpens and Corona Borealis.

Long exposure photos taken through telescopes show it has a condensed head, a short but noticeably curved dust tail and a very fine, straight gas tail.

Later in December, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will drift up into Corona, and then work its way slowly through the Northern Crown through Christmas and into the New Year.

After that it will begin to pick up speed, and brighten, and by mid-January 2023 C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will have crossed into northern Bootes, en-route to its ‘fly-by’ of Polaris in Ursa Minor at the end of January.

Then is should be visible in the northern sky all night and probably moving fast enough for its motion to be seen through binoculars.

How bright will C/2022 E3 (ZTF) get?

“How bright will Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) be?!” is the obvious question. The answer is – we don’t know.

Predicting the brightness of comets is never a good idea. Like newspaper horoscopes the predictions very rarely come true.

And it has been said famously that comets are like cats – they have tails and do exactly what they want.

But, if C/2022 E3 (ZTF) doesn’t ‘do an ISON’ and sputter out like a damp firework, it could be visible to the naked eye from a dark sky site in the early part of 2023, and binoculars should show it well.

We’ll just have to wait and see!

It’s certainly something to look forward to in early 2023.

Check back on this page in January. We’ll keep you updated regularly on the comet’s progress and make sure you know when and where  to look for it.

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