{"id":497522,"date":"2026-06-13T08:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497522\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T08:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:53:08","slug":"the-sky-today-on-saturday-june-13-catch-comet-220p-mcnaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497522\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Saturday, June 13: Catch Comet 220P\/McNaught"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tComet McNaught recently underwent a major brightening event and is now passing closest to the Sun on its 5.5-year orbit.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1785\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Comet220P-Outburst-060426-Schur.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A telescope image of Comet 220P in outburst, showing a bright green coma glowing near the center of the frame against a dark star-filled background. The comet's nucleus appears as a bright condensed point within the fuzzy green cloud, with a faint tail extending to the upper right.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOn June 2, Comet 220P\/McNaught underwent the second-brightest outburst ever recorded in a comet, jumping nearly 10 magnitudes in brightness overnight. This photo was taken June 4, showing its bright green coma and short, spiky tail. Credit: Chris Schur \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-june-12-to-19-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">June 12: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-friday-june-12-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Moon meets Mars<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Turn your telescope toward southern Pisces this morning, where Saturn outshines any of the stars in this part of the sky. This is where Comet 220P\/McNaught recently underwent an outburst, quickly brightening from 18th magnitude to nearly magnitude 8 in a single day! It has now begun to slowly fade, yet remains brighter than before the jump, recently recorded around 12th magnitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early-morning hours, you can find Comet McNaught 4.7\u00b0 west of Saturn\u2019s position, so take advantage of its location near the bright planet to find it. Look some two hours before dawn, when the comet is nearly 20\u00b0 high in the east. The region will continue to rise as the sky brightens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Comet McNaught, which has a period of roughly 5\u00bd years, officially reaches perihelion (the closest point to the Sun in its orbit) tomorrow, June 14. It is expected to continue fading, but we could always see another surprise outburst, so stay tuned! And even as this comet fades, another \u2014 10P\/Tempel \u2014 is inbound for a late summer perihelion, and is becoming more favorable for viewing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunrise: 5:31 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 8:30 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: 3:40 A.M.<br \/>Moonset: 7:27 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning crescent (2%)<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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Comet McNaught recently underwent a major brightening event and is now passing closest to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-497522","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\/497522","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=497522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}