If you cannot visually see the comet with your eyes, scan the region of the sky below Venus with binoculars. What you will be looking for is not a sharp pinpoint of light like a star, but a small fuzzy patch of light, perhaps with a semblance of a short tail pointing almost straight up from the patch in the general direction of Venus. First, locate Venus, then check out the region of the sky below it and see if you can spy the comet. We suggest you wait until at least an hour after sunset to hunt for Comet Leonard. Where to look?Ĭomet C/2021 A1 Leonard was captured on December 27th, 2021, in the western skies of Trinidad and Tobago (Image: Isa Mohammed) The comet passed closest to Earth on Monday at a distance of 21.7 million miles (34.9 million km) and now shines at magnitude +3.9 - a more than nine-fold increase in brightness since the start of the month, placing it readily within range of naked-eye viewers.

Over the past couple of weeks, as Comet Leonard approached both the sun and Earth, it has brightened rapidly.

However, those with less-than-perfect viewing conditions could readily sight the comet with the aid of binoculars and a knowledge of where precisely to look using a good star chart. A magnitude of +6.3 would make Comet Leonard just bright enough to be visible with the unaided eye by sharp-eyed observers under pristinely dark skies. This value is based on an average of dozens of reports worldwide posted on the Comet Observation Database. When December began, Comet Leonard’s brightness was hovering at around magnitude +6.3 on the brightness scale used by astronomers. Still, the undulating tendrils of the tail show up in the image. In all, this is just over 10 minutes of data. This image was taken on December 30th, 2021, in Trinidad and Tobago and represented just a handful of exposures before the comet dipped below a poorly positioned tree. Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard continues to make a fine photographic target in the western sky shortly after sunset.

Comet leonard stellarium