{"id":228308,"date":"2026-01-05T09:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/228308\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T09:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:55:07","slug":"comet-schaumasse-passes-a-pair-of-globs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/228308\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet Schaumasse passes a pair of globs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t24P\/Schaumasse is skimming south of globular clusters M53 and NGC 5053. Viewing them together may be difficult due to the Moon, but worth a try.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ASY-SM0126_03.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"The path of Comet 24P\/Schaumasse during January 2026\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tComet Schaumasse leaves the galaxy-rich regions of Virgo and spends its time south of Arcturus later this month. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>On January 4, 2026, Comet 24P\/Schaumasse will be observable in northern Virgo, rising before midnight and best viewed in the pre-dawn hours.<br \/>\nWith an observed magnitude of approximately 10, viewing the comet is recommended for observers with larger telescopes or astrophotography setups due to significant interference from a bright, waning gibbous Moon.<br \/>\nThe comet is positioned approximately 4\u00b0 south of Diadem (Alpha Comae Berenices), in proximity to the globular clusters M53 (magnitude 7.6) and NGC 5053 (magnitude 9.8), which are situated just over 1\u00b0 east of Diadem.<br \/>\nThe current date, January 4, presents the most favorable opportunity for observation, as the Moon&#8217;s trajectory will bring it closer to this celestial region in the following days, further diminishing visibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-january-2-to-9-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">January 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-sunday-january-4-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Winter Hexagon<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rising shortly before midnight on January 4 and best viewed in the hours before dawn, Comet 24P\/Schaumasse is located in northern Virgo, traveling through a rich region of the sky. Although the bright Moon will likely interfere, observers with larger scopes or astrophotography rigs may want to brave the moonlight to spot Schaumasse near the globular clusters M53 and NGC 5053 this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By 4 A.M. local time, this region of the sky is some 50\u00b0 high in the southeast. Schaumasse, recently observed around magnitude 10, lies roughly between the stars Diadem (Alpha [\u03b1] Comae Berenices) and Vindemiatrix (Epsilon [\u03b5] Virginis). For a more precise position, look 4\u00b0 due south of Diadem to find it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>M53 and NGC 5053 lie just over 1\u00b0 east of Diadem, so you can use this star as a jumping-off point to find them as well. Both are roughly the same angular size (10\u2019) but M53 is brighter at magnitude 7.6, compared to NGC 5053\u2019s magnitude of 9.8. The latter is much closer to the current magnitude of the comet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The comet remains near the two clusters for the next several days, but the Moon \u2014 although waning \u2014 is also approaching this region day by day, so your best chance to see the grouping is now, while Luna still floats relatively far away in the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sunrise:\u00a07:22 A.M.<br \/>Sunset:\u00a04:49 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise:\u00a07:39 P.M.<br \/>Moonset:\u00a09:16 A.M. \u00a0<br \/>Moon Phase:\u00a0Waning gibbous (90%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List 24P\/Schaumasse is skimming south of globular clusters M53 and NGC 5053. Viewing them together&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-228308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}