Jiří Spreňar
Reporter
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At the beginning of the week, a comet came closest to our planet, which was only discovered on August 11 by Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura, when he was taking pictures of the night sky using a Canon digital camera and a telephoto lens. No one in our latitudes will have another opportunity to see it – according to data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it will appear near Earth in another 434.16 years. And that’s only if it doesn’t fall apart sooner.
Click to enlarge 5 photos in the gallery ›
Comet Nishimura (bottom center) was only discovered last month. | Photo: Čestmír Černý
The newest visitor to the night sky caused an uproar among stargazers in the Czech Republic in recent days. Even amateur astronomer Čestmír Černý from Broumov did not miss the opportunity to capture the comet discovered only a month ago. He tried to “catch” her with his camera and was successful. And he didn’t even have to trudge after the celestial body to some hill without light pollution. He managed it from his apartment in the Broumov housing estate. “Actually, she wasn’t that visible, but she was there and it worked to catch it,” says Čestmír Černý about the comet, which he photographed on the eastern horizon in the Javorí horami at the beginning of the week. “I set my alarm for half past five in the morning, got up and it happened,” he added, adding that he took the pictures before the sun came up, shortly before five in the morning.
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An observer of the night sky managed to capture a barely visible object even without extra professional equipment. “When I shoot from a tripod that doesn’t have a drive to compensate for the Earth’s rotation, I have to shoot for a shorter time so that the stretching of stars and comets doesn’t show up in the picture,” he explains of the photography technique, adding that he had an exposure time set to three seconds . Now the comet is approaching the Sun and is no longer visible in the sky at our latitudes. “From our point of view, it is basically behind the Sun, so we no longer have a chance to observe it,” says the photographer, who converted one of the photos into a negative to the tail of the comet also stood out in the picture.
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The interesting thing about comet Nishimura is that it was discovered by a person, because amateur discoveries are relatively rare. “Many comets are now being discovered by patrol machines that monitor the sky for potentially dangerous asteroids. The discovery of a comet is usually a by-product of automatic patrols,” revealed Čestmír Černý, who described how the discovery by Japanese astronomers apparently occurred. “He focused on the area low above the horizon in the places he watched early in the morning just before sunrise or, conversely, in the evening just after to its west. Machines don’t look into these areas, because the intense sunlight could damage their sensor chips. And if a person focuses in that direction, he has a chance to discover something. And it worked out for him.”
On Sunday, September 17, the comet will pass closest to the Sun and reach its brightest appearance, adorning the night sky in the constellation of Virgo.
2023-09-15 19:15:31
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