Vast darkness over Outer Banks offers vantage point to see newly found Comet NEOWISE

Stargazers are finding the darkness over national parks in North Carolina perfect for spotting the newly-found Comet NEOWISE, particularly in the remote skies over the Outer Banks.

Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras national seashores shared photos this week on Facebook showing views of the comet from the parks, and offered tips on when to look for the rocky object zipping through outer space. The comet is projected to pass the Earth only once every 6,800 years.

“Currently, the best time to view it is just after sunset. It appears in the northwest sky, below the Big Dipper,” Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials wrote. “It is expected to move a little to the west each night that it is visible, until July 23rd when it will no longer be observable.”

Cape Lookout says its best view is at the eastern end of Harkers Island near the park’s visitor center. “Best comet hunting is about an hour after sunset and the comet can be found in the northwest, just below the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Dipper),” the park posted on Facebook.

Coastal resident Wes Snyder has earned a national reputation photographing stars off the Outer Banks, and he says the area has “the darkest skies on the East Coast.”

“We have nothing but sparse population on the eastern N.C. coast and on clear nights with no moon, it’s a light show here every night in the Outer Banks,” Snyder said in an email to McClatchy News. “It’s mind blowing how many stars can be seen.”

Images of Comet NEOWISE have also been captured over North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, where park officials advise checking “the north/northeast horizon in the early morning.”

The comet was discovered March 27 by NASA and is appearing slightly higher on the northwestern horizon with each passing day. NEOWISE appears like “a fuzzy star with a bit of a tail” when viewed with the naked eye, NASA says.

The 3-mile-wide comet is described as a “cosmic snowball” by Space.com, due to it being made up of mostly of “ice, rock and dust.” It contains “about 13 million Olympic swimming pools of water,” the site reports.

“The comet is traveling at about 40 miles per second (that’s about 144,000 mph),” Space.com says.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Vast darkness over Outer Banks offers vantage point to see newly found Comet NEOWISE."