This Week’s Night Sky: A Comet, Meteors, and Clusters at Play
As the Geminids reach their peak, even city dwellers should be able to see fireballs streak across the sky.
The trio form a triangular pattern that can been seen with binoculars. Over the course of the week, the comet will pull away from Venus, continue to climb higher in the morning sky, and become visible earlier in the overnight hours.
The icy visitor currently shines between magnitudes 6 and 7, just shy of being visible to the naked eye. Backyard astronomers have been taking amazing photos of Catalina and its two widely separated tails. And in the coming week, the comet may brighten by a magnitude or two—so stay tuned.
The W-patterned constellation Cassiopeia points the way towards Perseus, the mythical hero, and the dual star clusters. Draw a straight line down from Gamma Cass and Delta Cass, the two
