Comet McNaught is climbing rapidly higher every night for observers at mid-southern latitudes. Click above for a larger diagram.

Sky & Telescope diagram


Comet McNaught is now barely visible from the Northern Hemisphere, but the show is just beginning for observers at mid-southern latitudes. Although the comet is fading, it's also climbing rapidly out of the evening twilight, and so far the views have been getting better every night.

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, Comet McNaught is currently hard to miss if you face southwest shortly after sunset. But if the comet becomes any fainter, you can use the chart at right to locate it.

Things aren't completely hopeless for northerners, either. The comet's tail is so huge that it's far end was spotted from pristine dark sites in the Northern Hemisphere days after the head disappeared. See the January 18th and 19th pages of spaceweather.com for details.

Check out our photo gallery for some lovely pictures of the comet, and feel free to submit your own. You can also e-mail observing reports to [email protected].

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