Yes we may see the Northern Lights again on Friday night after a fairly dazzling display on Thursday night. But there's another exciting reason to watch the skies over the coming evenings.
You have a chance to see the first comet visible to the naked eye in roughly a decade.
Longtime WCCO Radio Meteorologist and avid sky watcher Mike Lynch says we should watch for what looks like a "fuzzy star."
"It's not something that like streaks through the sky," says Lynch. "That's a meteor. This is something that gradually moves among the stars like a planet. And again, Saturday night, maybe Sunday night, Monday night, a much better chance of seeing it in the low western sky."
Lynch recommends taking a picture of the comet with your smartphone since most of them automatically shoot with a longer exposure. That gives you a better view than with the naked eye.
Sky watchers have been treated to a bonanza of Northern Lights lately thanks a very large geomagnetic storm. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a severe geomagnetic storm alert on Wednesday after after an outburst from the sun was detected earlier in the week week. Such a storm increases the chance of auroras — also known as northern lights — and can temporarily disrupt power and radio signals.
It's a fairly common phenomenon in parts of the world and storms like this can make the northern lights visible in areas even as far south as Texas.
The comet, known as C/2023 (the year it was discovered) A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, is about two miles in diameter and should appear on the western horizon during twilight. That’s about 40 minutes or so after sunset.
"I would say, from my experience, you get a decent naked eye comet roughly every 10 years and that's roughly every 10 years," Lynch explains.
If you miss it Friday, you’ll be able to try and catch every night until the end of October with the comet appearing a little higher in the sky each evening. The National Weather Service says skies will be a little cloudy on Friday so it could be hit-and-miss across the Twin Cities and Minnesota. Skies should be a little more clear Saturday and Sunday nights.
After this spin by Earth, this particular comet won’t come by again for another 80,000 years.