Some comets can be seen at least once in a lifetime, while others don't appear for tens of thousands of years. The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is among those. The last time it was visible to Earth was in the Ice Age, and now it will be again on the 1st of February.
The E3 Comet
The comet orbits around the sun every 50,000, which explain why it took a long period of time before it makes its appearance again. It will pass within 26 million miles of the planet and can be seen using low-level telescopes or even binoculars.
The celestial object appears to have a blue-green coma along with a golden tail, as mentioned in Interesting Engineering. It was discovered and photographed by astronomers from NASA, Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci using the Zwicky Transient Facility.
The comet will be at perihelion on January 12th, which means it will be closest to the Sun. It will be the closest to the Earth at perigee, which will occur on February 1st. It's possible that the comet will only be visible to the naked eye during dark night skies.
How To View the Comet?
You can use the help of certain apps to locate where the comet currently is in the night sky. Some apps you can try are SkySafari, Star Walk 2, and Stellarium Mobile. They update the orbital data regularly so you might just spot the E3 comet using the apps.
SkySafari lets you view comets throughout time. You can also go to the Search menu and view the COmets category specifically. You can sort them using Visual Magnitude. For instance, the E3 comet had a magnitude of 17.3 upon discovery.
Star Walk 2 can't sort the comets, but it does highlight the celestial object when it's visible in your sky. You can use both SkySafari and Stellarium to search the comets by name to locate them in the sky.
You can also download the Comet Book, which shows you the motion of the comets so you can observe their trajectory and whether it's visible in your area. It has a red night mode, so your night vision won't be compromised, as suggested by Space.
You can't really choose which day the comet will appear, but the best scenario would be in a moonless sky. You won't mistake it for a star since they differ in appearance and comets usually come with a tail. Be sure to let your eyes adjust to the dark first to see it better.
You can tell where the comet is headed based on the tail and whether it's traveling away from the Sun. If you're using a telescope to search for it, use it at low power, at about 50x. Once you spot the comet, you can zoom in at about 150x.
It'd best to prepare yourself with proper equipment like telescopes or binoculars since comets are unpredictable. Its brightness can depend on how sunlight is scattered from its dust particles in the comet's tail or coma.
Related: First Half of 2023: Astronomical Events to Look Forward To
