A comet for your viewing pleasure

I've had a couple of question about the comet NEOWISE and what you need to do in order to see it. First, this is not the easiest thing to spot in the sky, but hopefully once you locate it, you'll find it with ease on future attempts. And maybe you'll be able to point it out to your friends and neighbors.

It is suggested that this is the brightest comet since 2013, so you'll see it with the naked eye if you look in the right spot. However, a pair of binoculars will maximize your viewing pleasure.

Up until recently, NEOWISE was mainly visible in the morning, but now it be can be spotted both morning and evening (this will be the case until July 18th)

Evening viewing:

Look to the northwest and relatively low in the sky. You want to start looking around 9:30 (about an hour after sunset). Good news is that each successive night, the comet will be higher in the sky and our moon is trending toward the "new" phase, so you aren't going to get a bunch of extra light to wash away the comets tail.

Morning viewing (best through July 18):

If this is your preferred time, you'll want to be out a few hours before sunrise and look to the NORTHEAST sky. It's going to be extra hard to get a picture with a mobile phone, because the photo will likely be very grainy. The comet will be VERY close to the horizon, so make sure you are looking low in the sky. As we get closer to July 18, it will be even closer to the horizon.

Another round of storms Tuesday evening-night:

This batch of rain will develop along and just behind a cold front that will be in the area. Some hail and wind gusts to 65 or 70 mph appear possible as the storms move along. They will start in southeast Colorado and southwest Kansas and then track east-northeast. Could be some heavier rainfall in southwest and central Kansas before tapering down by daybreak Wednesday.

Rain fades - heat builds

We will be discussing less rain and more heat at the end of the week. A highly advertised "high" pressure system will setup over the area Friday - early next week. Hot weather expands in these cases and this thing might be VERY stubborn to relax. So a heat wave looks like it will set in and continue through much of our third full week of July.