When Mumbaikars gathered to watch Comet Wirtanen

For stargazing lovers in the city, this was a real treat! A bunch of folks came together at Saphale, Tandulwadi Village, recently, to watch the beautiful Comet Wirtanen light up the night sky. Known as the brightest comet of the year, Wirtanen, named ‘46P/Wirtanen’, zoomed close to Earth on December 15 and was a mere 7.2 million miles away!
Enjoying the celestial shower
The Wirtanen Comet
The group gathered at the venue by 5.30 pm.They first had a talk and video presentation on the different sky objects. Participants also learnt about Comet Wirtanen and the Geminid meteors that were on. Says organiser, Deepti Sutar, “The Wirtanen Comet came up in the sky after 1 am. Its brightness made it enough for people to view it with their naked eyes. In fact, Wirtanen is one of the brightest comets of the past few years. It zoomed past another astronomical marvel, the Pleiades star cluster. There were also the annual Geminid meteors that gave stargazers an additional treat to look at.”
Amateurs observed some of the deep-sky objects like planets, nebulae, Milky Way Galaxy, globular cluster, open clusters and double stars, and they also saw the Pole Star. Says Bhayander-based Computer Science student, Hardik Ajmani, “It was such a beautiful stargazing experience. We can’t really get a clear sky in Mumbai, so it was worth making the trip to Saphale. We saw the Comet Wirtanen and if you stare at it through a telescope for 10 seconds, you can see a green tint in it.”
Adds businessman from Vile Parle, Tejas Mehta, “This is the first time I had gone stargazing, and though it was slightly hazy we could see the comet. I had gone with my friends and took my camera along. I wanted to shoot a star trail and managed to do so.”

Participants have dinner in the quiet night
The event also saw dinner under the stars outside the tent and photo session in the morning.
DID YOU KNOW?
'46P/Wirtanen' circles around Jupiter and back, and makes a trip around the sun every 5.4 years. It has a diameter of about three-quarters of a mile and is a relatively small comet.