Environment & Outdoors

Smiling man next to a large home telescope

After a little break (of 25 years or so) Bob King is celebrating his retirement with a return to The North 103.3's airwaves!After almost 40 years with the Duluth News Tribune, Bob is now retired. But scratch a print guy and you'll find a radio guy; King and then-UMD Planetarium Director Glen Langhorst hosted Startalk on KUMD for several years in the early '90s.Listen for Astro Bob every other Tuesday at 8am on Northland Morning.

Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy: Comet Nichimura

The North 103.3 | By Luke Moravec

Published September 5, 2023 at 8:53 AM CDT

A green-blue comet in the starry night sky

There are good reasons to wake up early.

The moon is still shining bright and lingering high in the sky after last week's super blue moon. There's also a comet in the eastern sky. Comet Nichimura was discovered last month by an amateur Japanese astronomer. The comet will be visible with the aid of binoculars through the 11th of September. After that, you're in for a long wait - the comet will be back in about 500 years.

A sky map that tracks the location of a comet through the first days of September

In the coming days, the pre-dawn sky will include all the tropes in a child's drawing of space; a crescent moon, a comet, and Saturn will all be visible.

You can hear Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy every other Tuesday at 8:20am on Northland Morning.