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There's an insignificant comet that's getting lots of low-grade press coverage. The comet is known for short as "Comet ZTF 2022" for the "Zwicky Transient Facility" (right next to the famous 200-inch telescope on Mount Palomar near San Diego). That's the name of the automated survey telescope that was used to discover it last Spring: ZTF.

But this is the WTF comet. WHY THE F* is it in the news??! How did this get out of hand? This is an unimportant, average comet --a once a year sort of thing-- that will be difficult to see and unimpressive. So WTF?! Is this the first comet in 50,000 years? No. Does it have a 50,000 year orbit? Yes, or longer. It's just an estimate, and that's not unusual in any way. So WTF?! Is it an exotic green color?? No, it has a faint green hue which shows up in photos but is almost completely invisible to the human eye, and it's not all unusual for comets. Will it be easy to see? No, but with some effort, dark skies, good optical aid (decent binoculars), and proper timing (avoid the Full Moon), you'll see a small glowing grey "smudge" in the sky.

Really the only interesting thing about "Comet ZTF 2022" is that in a couple of weeks it will be passing through a large constellation that most people have never heard of: the constellation "Camelopardalis" or the "Giraffe" which has exactly zero bright stars in it (a filler constellation created four centuries ago by Petrus Plancius (flatfoot) and adopted by Jan Hevelius). It will also pass quite close (at Full Moon!) to Capella, the Goat Star, and the Kids. Which begs the question: why does the charioteer carry around pet goats?? 

Once again, WTF??

Frank Reed

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