A Year of Comets

Before anyone gets excited, this picture wasn't taken last night over Kilchoan.  It was taken back in 2007 by 'wonderferret', a resident of Auckland, New Zealand, and it shows comet McNaught, one of the best comet sightings so far in the 21st century.

That is due to change in March of this year, when comet Pan-STARRS is predicted to be a bright object in the sky.  An even better prospect is comet ISON which, it has been suggested, may be a spectacular sight when it nears perigee in November of this year.

All this is good news for those of us who watch the night sky, particularly after the recent frustrations over the aurora: there was another alert last night, but we were busy enjoying the 26mm of rain which fell between four yesterday afternoon and eight this morning.

Many thanks to wonderferret on Flickr, here.

A good way of keeping up with heavenly events is EarthSky.