Stargazers' eyes are on the skies over Northamptonshire as brightest comet in 23 years hurtles overhead

Stargazers have been in awe at views of a comet streaking across the skies over Northamptonshire.

Comet Neowise was only spotted in March but is the first bright comet visible with the naked eye in 23 years.

And plenty will be staying up late — or even later — tonight to get a first view of the cosmic iceberg in nearly week as cloudy skies finally clear.

Local amateur astronomer Dave Eagle has snapped some stunning views of the comet over the east of Northamptonshire.

He said: "Bright comets are very rare and the last one you could stand in your garden and go there it is was the Hale–Bopp in 1997.

"The Neowise is about 2½miles across, so it's quite a big lump.

"You can see the tail with your naked eye when the skies are clear. It's visible all night, if you look towards the north after dark, about 11pm, it's very obvious.

"It passed the Sun on July 3 and it's been heading in the Earth's general direction since then. But the closest it will get to us will still be July 23, although it will still be around 64million miles away!

"It will then head out of sight as it travels back to the outer Solar System."

Neowise — officially labelled C/2020 F3 — was spotted by a space telescope called Near Earth Object Widefield Infra-red Survey Explorer sent up to keep watch for dangerous meteors and other space objects heading our way.

It is currently hurtling through our solar system at around 17,500 miles per hour on an orbit that is not expected to bring it this close to Earth for another 7,000 years.

Hundreds of pictures have already been shared — including these by Dave and Corby star gazer Damien Weatherley — with plenty more to come.

The comet is expected to remain visible until the end of this month although experts have their fingers crossed.

Dave is founder of star-gazing.co.uk website and tours local schools with a mobile planetarium passing on his knowledge and enthusiasm.

He added: "This time of year the best way to view the comet is with binoculars because it's stunning. If you look through a telescope you probably won't be able to see all of the tail, just the bright centre.

"My prediction is the tail will get much longer and look even bigger, but the trouble with comets is they are very unpredictable.

"This is the third time this year a bright comets has been spotted. The others gave great shows in the Southern Hemisphere, then broke up before we got a chance to see them."