Monday, August 10, 2026
[ALERT] Compet 220P is "Bright" in the morning skies.
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| View of the Northern Sky as seen from Adelaide at astronomical twilight(90 minutes before Sunrise) on August 11 showing the location of comet 220P McNaught (red cross). Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes before sunrise. The location of the asteroid Ceres and Mars are also shown as Ceres is within a binocular field of Mars. Click to embiggen | Binocular view of Cetus as seen from Adelaide at astronomical twilight (90 minutes before Sunrise) on August 11 showing the location of comet 220P McNaught (red cross). The location of the Guide Stars μ Ceti and Menkat (λ Ceti) are shown for comparison with the black and while charts. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes before sunrise. Click to embiggen |
Comet 220P McNaught should have been a barely visible telescopic object but it has undergone two large outbursts, soaring from magnitude 18 to now roughly magnitude 7, a nearly 7000 fold increase in brightness. Of course, while this is "bright" in astronomical terms, you will still need binoculars or a small telescope to see it.
It will only stay binocular bright for a short time, so you should look in the next few days .The bad news is that it is only visible in the morning. The good news is that it is quite high just before Astronomical twilight, and the moon is trending to New, so it should be easy to pick up in binoculars.
The other good news is that there are good guide stars, μ Ceti and λ Ceti (Menkar), just below the bright star α Ceti (also called confusingly Menkar) in the loop of Cetus, See the charts below.
As a bonus, the asteroid Ceres is close to Mars. although at magnitude 9 it will be more of a tough catch.
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| Black and white view of the Northern Sky as seen from Adelaide at astronomical twilight(90 minutes before Sunrise) on August 11 showing the location and track of comet 220P McNaught. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes before sunrise. The circle shows the field of View of 10x50 binoculars. The tracks of Asteroid Ceres and Mars are also shown as Ceres is within a binocular field of Mars | Black and white Binocular view of Cetus as seen from Adelaide at astronomical twilight (90 minutes before Sunrise) on August 11 showing the location and track of comet 220P McNaught. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes before sunrise. The circle shows the field of View of 10x50 binoculars. |
Downloadable printable B&W maps are at the links for the Spotters Map and the Binocular Map.
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