Comet 12P also visible in Italy, when and how to watch it

The March sky has a show in store for us not to be missed.
On March 12th comet 12P will cross our celestial vault, giving emotions to astronomy lovers.
Some comets pass close to the Earth at a distance of millions of kilometers, a relatively short distance in astronomical terms, making them visible to the human eye or almost so, without having to resort to large telescopes.
This is a rather rare event.
The last time a comet was clearly visible at any latitude, after sunset, was in March 1997 and it was comet Hale-Bopp, which remained visible for many days before moving away into our solar system.
Now, in March 2024, 12P/Pons-Brooks will be visible, which is enchanting astronomers and enthusiasts from all over the world.
The comet, although not visible to the naked eye, can be easily observed by adopting the right instruments.
Here's what you need to know about the comet and how to observe it.
read also Does ChatGPT have feelings? The sobering study Comet 12P, Everything you need to know about the comet As experts explain, 12P is a periodic comet, which returns to visit the Sun every 71 years, therefore forming part of the family of the most famous comet of Halley, which passed close to the Earth also in this case in March 1986.
The comet was discovered on 12 July 1812 by the astronomer Jean-Louis Pons and rediscovered in the following passage by William Robert Brooks, from whom it therefore takes its name first name.
During the current passage, comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has shown important increases in brightness, called outbursts, which are somewhat of a distinctive feature of it.
Although visible only through simple binoculars and telescopes, laboratory instruments have been capturing images of extraordinary beauty for days now, with the comet and its long tail as it approaches the Sun, and will reach perihelion on April 21st.
Some of these images were captured by the Virtual Telescope Project, operating in Manciano, in the Grosseto area.
As explained by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, Scientific Director of the Virtual Telescope Project and internationally renowned popularizer and well-known face of Geo & Geo.
In recent evenings we have obtained some extraordinary images of this comet which shows a continuously changing tail, very rich in details, like the regions closest to the nucleus.
The pure, starry sky of Manciano, the least polluted by artificial light on the Italian peninsula, made it possible to obtain all these details.
Comet 12P, how and when to observe it As already mentioned, comet 12P will not be visible to the naked eye but it will be enough to equip yourself with binoculars to be able to observe the comet in transit.
In order to spot the comet, observers will have to point their binoculars, about 90 minutes after sunset, looking towards the northwest horizon, among the stars of the constellation Andromeda.
March is the best month to observe this comet, which is enchanting scientists from all over the world, as at the beginning of April the comet could become faintly visible to the naked eye, under dark skies, in fact, from the middle of that month the visibility from our hemisphere it will become increasingly difficult.
But for those who did not have the opportunity to observe this astronomical spectacle in time, there will be the Virtual Telescope Project, a technologically very advanced structure, consisting of several robotic telescopes and active both in the field of research and scientific communication.
The telescopes, in fact, will show comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in live streaming through their instruments, installed under the sky of Manciano, "the darkest in peninsular Italy" recalls La Stampa.
Viewing will be free.
To be able to see the comet, just log in to the Virtual Telescope website on March 12th from 7.30 pm.
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