13 centuries will pass before Comet Lemmon is visible again from Earth.<\/p>\n
THUNDER BAY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 If you miss it now, you will lose your only opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comet Lemmon is streaking away from Earth and won’t return until about 1,300 years from now.<\/p>\n
Thunder Bay amateur astrophotographer Joey Mastrangelo is among several area residents who have posted photos\u00a0of the celestial showstopper on social media.<\/p>\n
“This comet is very bright. It was very simple to spot, and you don’t have to stay up late,” he told Newswatch. “You can see\u00a0it just after sunset if you look west.”<\/p>\n
Mastrangelo advised looking for the Big Dipper, and to follow the direction of its\u00a0handle to a bright star, above and to the left of which Lemmon can be seen.<\/p>\n
The comet was discovered in January of this year by the Mount Lemmon Survey near Tucson, Arizona.<\/p>\n
Mastrangelo\u00a0posted\u00a0an image\u00a0captured in his backyard over a one-minute period with a\u00a0Starfield telescope and ZWO camera.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty amazing, the technology we have in our hands,” he said, but added that it can also be seen with binoculars, or\u00a0\u2014 away from the city lights\u00a0\u2014 even with the naked eye.<\/p>\n
Local professional photographer Kay Lee posted an image he obtained on the weekend in Neebing using a telephoto lens and a special mount that follows Earth’s rotation.<\/p>\n
“You can kind of take a photo without stars being streaky,” he explained to Newswatch.<\/p>\n
He wrote that he’s been busy lately, and was worried he might not get to see it, but “Luckily, Mother Nature gave us a clear night on my birthday.”<\/p>\n
Comet Lemmon\u00a0can be found on\u00a0the western to northwestern horizon\u00a0within 30 to 90 minutes after\u00a0sunset<\/p>\n
The prime viewing period is coming to an end,\u00a0 as it will now\u00a0appear lower and lower in the sky, making it increasingly\u00a0difficult to spot in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"13 centuries will pass before Comet Lemmon is visible again from Earth. THUNDER BAY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 If you miss it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,79092,66,306],"class_list":["post-247071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comet-lemmon","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}