West Cumbria’s close encounter

From our reporter JASON RUSHWORTH

Viable from Clint’s Hill Egremont last night. Comet Neowise doesn’t require binoculars to see.

Make a date for your diary for the 23rd of July at 10 pm. This is when the Comet will pass at its closest to West Cumbria at a mere 64 million miles away. So quite local then.

It will be visible low in the sky towards the north, throughout the next few nights then the interplanetary snowball will begin to head out of sight as it travels back to the outer solar system.

The comet was named after the Neowise telescope that discovered it last month. Unlike the more famous Halley’s comment which comes our way very 76 years, nobody saw this one coming.

Comments are often linked to historical events, such as when Halley’s was seen just before the Battle of Hastings in 1066 ‘and all that.’ Set your diary’s for the year 2061 for the next Halley encounter.