[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Edgar is worth getting up for...

[Mike McCabe]

...and soon enough you won't even have to!
Greetings SSAStros Members and Friends,
After five, yes, FIVE straight days of not being able to see the sky, the clouds finally parted overnight and the cosmic dome was blessedly clear this morning. Upon laying my head on the pillow last night I half-heartedly considered the possibility of getting out early this morning to see the new object du jour, Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3). That's the last time you'll hear me call it that. Back in December I gave it a more attractive moniker, so from here on it will be known as Comet Edgar.
Notification of two new-to-us comets came late last year, and at our December 27th observing session at Centennial Field most of us got to see Comet Victoria (C/2022 V2 ZTF...aka 'Victoria' courtesy of yours truly) and even though it was just a tiny smudge in the eyepiece it was still a cool sight to see. Comets always are! Thanks again to Jim Rutledge for bringing the setup that made it possible to view it from the field, a location not especially renowned for its darkness.
Edgar is a different animal altogether! Sliding out from underneath the covers just before 5:30am this morning, I piled on some clothes, fed the cat, and was out door with 10x50 binoculars in hand before 5:45am. Parking my warm butt down in the cold plastic chair sitting behind the camper, I first found Arcturus, then Alphecca, the alpha star in Corona Borealis. From there it was just a matter panning less than 10° towards the north to land on the area of the comet.
What I saw there really kind of surprised me. Even with the 98% waning Moon blazing away 30° above the western horizon and spraying with celestial dome with a haze of white light, the comet was readily visible in the binoculars. After a couple of minutes I went into the garage and came back out with my trusty old 4.5" F/8 Newtonian reflector which showed the hazy Edgar splendidly, even hinting at a puffiness to one side, possibly signs the tail being visible even in small instruments.
While Edgar isn't projected to become anything like the most recent popular comet, Neowise from 2020, this thing is looking like a pretty darned good way to start the year off! It's likely to only get brighter and better over the course of the next few weeks as it makes its closest approach to the Sun on January 12th, then Earth on February 1st.
And if you're not an early morning person, you're in luck. Later on this month the comet will become circumpolar, and at the end of January/beginning of February will become and evening sky object as it travels straight through Draco and between the big and little dippers as it pulls away from the Sun. 

Use the chart above to follow Edgar from Corona Borealis into Bootes from now until mid-month.

Then use this chart to track Edgar as he travels through Draco and into Ursa Minor during the latter part of the month.
Now about my ALL CAPS emphasis on the recent five days straight of cloudy skies...for the past ten years I've kept at least rudimentary records of the observing opportunities presented to us in this region. The records show that on average we see some opportunity to observe the cosmos on about half the days of a year (my average from 2014 through 2022 is 188 days) and that a five day stretch of non-observable skies is really quite rare. I don't have an exact number of stretches like that immediately at hand, but when you jot this stuff down every day you tend to get a feel for things. It's out of the norm, for sure.
Here's a link with more information about Edgar, who unfortunately still suffers from an identity crisis in the mainstream media:
How to see Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF)


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How to see Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF)

Everything you need to know about a comet making its first approach to Earth in 50,000 years.
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Keep Looking Up! 
Mike McCabe



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