Is this usually in your backyard or do you travel/move to see this kind of thing?

I've got a decent western view, a high north view and a mid high east view from my side yard so we do a lot of setting up there. But in recent years they built a Woodmans and a Thornton very ose to my home and their lights wash out a lot of my night sky. That being said i can still find most Messier objects easy enough (more on Charles Messier tomorrow). But I'm thinking about setting up at the Johnsburg High School parking lot for some views. Not a lot of lights out that way and hardly any streetlights. Only issue is the cops. Will they hassle me being in a parking lot at 1am? Probably once they see I'm sober and have a telescope and camera setup they'll leave me be. I'm not some teenager smoking dope, I'm just looking for dark skies.
There's a great site in Marengo with very dark skies that hosts a few star parties each year called coral woods. Very nice very dark.

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Post the link here if you can. I'd like to see those.

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Coming soon!

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Happy belated birthday to Charles Messier.
Messier was a French comet hunter born 6/26/1730.

As a comet hunter, he found it was necessary to catalog non transient diffuse light objects so they would not be confused for potential comets. Messier himself discovered more than a dozen comets that are named after him, but what he's truly remembered for is this catalog of bright diffuse deep sky objects.

Officially, there are 110 Messier objects, galaxies, nebula and clusters mostly. And we still use his catalog designations today. They're all northern latitude and generally bright objects which can be found with even small telescopes or in many cases, can be seen with the naked eye.
Here are a couple of my favorites:


M42, Orion Nebula


M57, the Ring Nebula


M13, Hercules cluster

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NEOWISE is getting much brighter. That could mean its breaking up but astronomers really don't think so. The brightening has been very linear and not the sudden jumps that indicate a breakup.
This comet, should it hold up, will be visible when it emerges from sun glare in mid July.

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Comet NEOWISE is now a naked eye visible object.
You should be able to pick it out from the first morning light in the east.
It will steadily become more and more of a night time object as the weeks wear on.

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NEOWISE is visible in the moments before dawn!
This is literally a once or maybe twice in a lifetimes event. Check it out!

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NEOWISE is turning into a stunner!
They have calculated that the nucleus is near 5km in diameter. Thats why its so bright and why its survived its close encounter with the sun.
You've got to go see it.
Get up about 45 minutes before dawn and check the northeastern sky.
It will be rising earlier and easier in the evening as the summer rolls on.

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So for you guys and gals that don't like getting up early...


NEOWISE is now going to be visible in the evening!
Oh snap.



Seriously. Show the kids.

Heres a bloomin map!



Yeah!

Remember, Darko loves ya, and Darko cares! Thats why he gave ya a map!

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Thanks Darko.. I’ll drag the kids out at sunset a heck of a lot more readily handed 5 am.

Ya baby. Wife and i just walked up to the lake and totally saw it.

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Shoot....how long will it be around?

Not too sure but likely at least a few more weeks.

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Ok....may try to see it tomorrow night....

Sunset last night and tonight are both around 8:27 by me...about what time did you folks see it and how long was it visible? cause i gotta tell you my wife and i felt like Linus and Sally waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

It was very low on the NW horizon.

If you outstretched your arm the comet was about as high above the horizon as 4 fingers. It was lost in the light of the sun until just before 10pm here. Id guess it was about 2nd or 3rd magnitude and the tail around 4th. The tail is best observed using averted vision. Our eyes pick up faint light better when you're not looking directly at something. Averted vision takes some practice as your eye always wants to focus on an object directly.
Best way I can describe how to find it is to locate the big dipper around 10pm. Find the last two stars of the bowl. Imagine a line from those two stars to the horizon. Neowise will be between the lines.

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Thanks for the tip on the time, I think you and I are close in proximity...didn't know it was called Averted vision but during the twilight we did that to locate the big dipper...we'll try again tonight...and I gotta tell my jerk neighbor to turn off his lights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yl20r4dbgs

Groovy. Needed to use averted vision but nice clear night tonight.

I think I need to follow Darkside around for about a half hour before this.

We just went out a minute ago and saw it easily. Very cool, thanks for the tip and also for the map. Pretty cool!

I've been on night shift the last two weeks, and have easily seen the comet in the mornings coming home- last night spraying grapes from 8-12, but couldn't find it anywhere in the sky. We're pretty clear to all directions, so I'll have to try harder. Thanks for these updates, Darko!

Saw it last night near Ottawa. Pretty damn cool.

This makes me really happy. Thanks for getting out there and checking it out.

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I have to give Darko credit where it is due. The comet is really cool.

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I've tried multiple times the last 10 days or so.

Drove out to the middle of nowhere tonight, I can't see it. I think it's too low on the horizon. Hopefully I catch a glimpse in a couple weeks when it's more visible at night rather than early morning.

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Not sure on angles and such back home as I am also in the middle of nowhere except 500 miles north, but around 11:30 draw a line straight down from the middle of the pan on the Big Dipper and it should be there.

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Yeah I know it's generally under the BD, and I use the "night sky" app to try and help. I just haven't seen it so far. Not giving up, just no success. I'm not quite ready to do the 3am thing for this just yet

Just so different from the Hale-Bopp back in the mid 90's.....it was just "there", you couldn't not see it.

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Sometime tonight will be neowises closest approach right earth. Frankly, its dimmed quite a bit since its brightest after emerging from behind the sun. Its probably 2nd or maybe approaching 3rd magnitude now so that's much dimmer than before. Here's tonights map.

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