Live Event: Watch the end of Comet Lovejoy Tonight

Tonight NASA invites you to watch “live” what will most likely be the end of Comet Lovejoy as it passes 120,000 kilometers above the Sun’s surface, grazing it.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will point a little to the left of the Sun to try and see the tail of the comet in their telescopes.

Images from SDO will be available soon after they are observed, but it takes about 30 minutes to move from the spacecraft to NASA’s computer at Goddard. NASA plans to off-point at 23:30 UTC (6:30 pm ET) and return to normal solar observing at 12/16 00:30 UTC (7:30 pm ET). You should see images starting by 7 pm ET.

For more viewing options visit NASA’s Goddard’s special Comet Lovejoy web site.