The next two weeks will provide excellent opportunities to view a comet in the night skies.
Comet Machholz has grown in brightness 1,000-fold since its discovery last August by an amateur astronomer and is now visible to the naked eye in southern skies.
"It is levelling off in brightness but will be at its peak in the first few days in January," stated Mr David Moore, editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine.
"The special thing about this comet is its brightness."
It was first spotted by Mr Don Machholz in California and the discoverer gets to name the object.
For this reason amateurs are constantly on the lookout for comets, which appear as faint, indistinct objects when still very distant, Mr Moore says.
"There is always a concerted search by amateurs who scour the sky for these fuzzy objects." Mr Machholz has so far discovered 10 incoming comets, but amateurs and professionals here have not had his success, Mr Moore added. "There has never been a comet found by Irish observers."
By early January the comet will be about 35 million miles away from us and 115 million away from the sun.
Machholz is unusual in that it has two tails not one, a gas tail and a dust tail, Mr Moore said.
The main tail is also quite extensive, stretching behind the object for about four widths of the full moon. "Everyone can see the comet over the Christmas and New Year by simply going out each evening and looking into the southern sky," he stated. A comet of this brightness only comes along once a decade so people should take this opportunity, Mr Moore says.
The comet is readily visible by facing towards the south. It is already more than 37 degrees above the horizon and by January 7th it will be 60 degrees above the horizon.
If you know your constellations look towards the three stars of Orion's belt sometime during this week and you should be able to see the indistinct comet.
"The comet will be the small fuzzy patch and the use of binoculars will give an even better view." Telescopes are less useful than binoculars for viewing the comet, he added.
Astronomy Ireland is organising free public comet watches over the next few weeks.
For dates, times and locations consult its website at www.astronomy.ie or phone the Astronomy Ireland shop at (01) 847-0777.
