This sky map by Bob King is still one of the best maps to locate Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

Facing North, find the Big Dipper, then the North Star and look for the comet in between. Overnight, the stars rotate counter-clockwise around the North Star at 15 degrees per hour. The comet will continue to get higher during the evening hours and lower in the pre-dawn skies over the next 2 weeks.

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/astro-bob/astro-bob-comet-ztf-will-not-streak-across-the-sky-but-its-still-pretty-cool
Image Credit: Stellarium with additions by Bob King
#comet #C2022E3 #Astronomy
2/n

To visualize the sky during pre-dawn hours, rotate the above map counter-clockwise around the North Star by about 90 degrees.

You can also use the website below to precisely locate Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) from any location and for any given date/time.
https://theskylive.com/planetarium?objects=sun-moon-c2022e3-mercury-venus-mars-jupiter-saturn-uranus-neptune-pluto&localdata=40.71427%7C-74.00597%7CNew+York+City+NY+(US)%7CAmerica%2FNew_York%7C0&obj=c2022e3&h=03&m=00&date=2023-01-29#ra%7C12.775259914854878%7Cdec%7C78.12558476814618%7Cfov%7C50
#comet #C2022E3 #Astronomy
3/n

Here is an updated light curve from http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2022E3 with magnitude (brightness) values of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). This graph predicts a magnitude value of around 5 on Feb 1, at closest approach to earth.

Objects with lower magnitude values are brighter. The human eye can detect objects with magnitude < 6. With a good pair of 10x50 binoculars, one can observe objects at magnitude 11 and lower .

Credit: Gideon van Buitenen at http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/home
#comet #C2022E3 #Astronomy
5/n

Like other comets, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has a dust tail trailing behind the comet and a glowing ion tail, pointing away from the Sun, formed from gases ionized by UV radiation from the Sun.

The dust tail is also affected by solar radiation and hence is oriented a bit away from the sun.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image source: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/comets/en/
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6/n

The green color seen in the coma of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and other comets, but not in their tails, is due to emissions from Diatomic carbon molecules.

Sunlight heats the comet’s ice and organic material to produce C2 molecules, which break apart in ~2 days before they reach the tail. C2 is excited by solar UV radiation and emits mostly in infrared but its triplet state radiates at 518 nm.

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.1.20220110a/full/
Image source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Dicarbon-moleculeThe-original-figure-is-from-4-Used-under-Creative-Commons-License_fig4_328571186
#comet #dicarbon #chemistry
8/n