Paul Lynam, an astronomer at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, told SFGATE it’s unlikely that anyone in the Bay Area will be able to see the comet with the naked eye due to light pollution, so a backyard telescope — or ideally, a small pair of binoculars, which offer a wider field of view — will come in handy.

NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe comet gets its namesake shade of green from carbon-based compounds that interact with ultraviolet light in the atmosphere, which then break down and produce dicarbon, a molecule that emits the color.

Prosper told SFGATE the moon is expected to become increasingly bright over the next week, and Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said scattered to broken stratus clouds as well as a chance of rain may hinder observers on Saturday and Sunday night.

Later this weekend, stargazers may have more luck by heading over to the Chabot Space & Science Center, which plans to host free telescope viewing from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday night, and again on Feb. 3 and 4.

A rare green comet is passing through our solar system for the first time in 50,000 years, and over the weekend, Bay Area stargazers could have the best chance of spotting it in the night sky.

Dubbed C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet was first discovered in Jupiter’s orbit last March by astronomers Frank Masci and Bryce Bolin at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, and named after the Zwicky Transient Facility where it was identified.