Rare Comet Spotted Whizzing Across Dubai Skyline

A comet that is passing by the Earth for the first time in 50,000 years has been photographed by the Dubai Astronomy group. The once in a lifetime Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was captured at Al Thuraya Astronomy Center on January 20.

The photograph was captured between 4am and 6am, and we can clearly see the dust tail and ionic tail in it.

Not only that, the group of astronauts also captured a video of the comet’s movement across the sky.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) captured at Al Thuraya Astronomy Center on the 20th of Jan 2023 pic.twitter.com/XeKTlQVjzb

— Dubai Astronomy Group (@dubaiastronomy) January 24, 2023

UAE residents will get an opportunity to see the comet in the next few weeks. It is expected to pass closest to Earth on February 1, 2023, at a distance of around 26 million miles. It will be equally visible till the 5th of Feb.

According to the CEO of Dubai Astronomy Group Hasan Al Hariri, although comet brightness can be difficult to predict, the celestial body can be easily spotted using binoculars and small telescopes around January and early February.

Dubai Astronomy Group will host a special ticketed event on February 4, 2023, at the Al Qudra desert in Dubai from 6.30pm to 9.30pm that will spot deep sky objects like the comet, moon, Mars and Jupiter among others. The trip will also include astrophotography sessions, sky mapping and more.

Dubai residents can also spot the comet from their homes or open grounds using special equipment. “The best tools to observe the comet are binoculars,” said Hasan Al Hariri. “It has a wide-angle field of view of the sky so hunting down the comet becomes much easier than using a telescope because that has a narrow-angle field of view which makes it harder to locate the comet.”