After falling towards the sun for more than 3000 years perhaps a new visitor appears now in our City skyline about 2 hours before the sun rise. Though it is very low just above North East horizon, once you can sport it the unmistakable site of the bright Nucleus and characteristic long protruded tail, one cannot miss it any further.
This new visitor, Comet NEOWISE, is named after the NASA Infrared Space Telescope that discovered it on March 27, 2020. Officially designated C/2020 F3, it passed its closest approach point to the Sun on July 3rd and has emerged into view low over the horizon in early dawn. Any Comet is an exciting site and this work is no exception as the same is currently shined with an apparent brightness of about 1.5 so that it can still be visible with a naked eye. However it is likely to shift its motion from 14th July onwards such that the best viewing opportunity would be in the evening sky when it can be found above the altitude of 30 degree. It is expected that the Comet would be visible, provided we have a clear dawn time sky without cloud or rain, upto 23rd July.
The weather of the city of Kozhikode will allow us to enjoy the brilliance spectacle, but we can celebrate this event even under lockdown condition. The Regional Science Centre & Planetarium Calicut as of now would not be able to organise a direct observation session as we have to maintain the conditions of social distancing. However, we will be organising one Online Webinar on July 17th 2020 at 11.00am where Shri. Manash Bagchi, Curator & Project Co-ordinator and Shri. Jayant Gangopadhyay, Technical Officer, Regional Science Centre & Planetarium Calicut discussing the Astronomy of Comets in general and the Comet NEOWISE in particular. The Webinar is accessible through Youtube channel of the Planetarium that is rspcalicut.virtual. In case the clear sky is available, online live observation session would also be held on behalf of the Regional Science Centre & Planetarium Calicut. Details of such programmes and observation session are available at the website https://rscpcalicut.edu.in and facebook page of Regional Science Centre Calicut. All are encouraged to watch out web notifications for the final schedule of the programmes.
we will be organising one Online Webinar on July 17th 2020 at 11.00am where Shri. Manash Bagchi, Curator & Project Co-ordinator and Shri. Jayant Gangopadhyay, Technical Officer, Regional Science Centre & Planetarium Calicut discussing the Astronomy of Comets in general and the Comet NEOWISE in particular. The Webinar is accessible through Youtube channel of the Planetarium that is rspcalicut.virtual.
