Wanna See a Comet ?

In the pre-dawn skies for the next few weeks Comet Catalina is visible near the star Arcturus; the celestial visitor will be slowly moving to the northeast towards the Big Dipper over the next several weeks.

The easy way to find Arcturus is to locate the big dipper high overhead, . . . and follow the curved handle of the dipper to the first bright star - that's Arcturus.

Or the interested reader, if any, can refer to the diagram below depicting the pre-dawn southern sky on New Years Day. The comet will appear as a fuzzy greenish ball through a pair of binoculars or a small telescope next to Arcturus; the inset on the upper-left of the diagram shows where on 1 January.
The Moon will be moving to the south-east and the comet slowly to the north-east over the coming days.



Oh, and there's lots of planets glowing in the pre-dawn sky right now too.

How about 20% more comet? A lot better than DonDiego is offering.

I see it!

All I ever see is clouds, day after day of clouds. Remind me, what color is the sky?

Not only that, but DonDiego’s comet doesn’t even have bleach. Jeez, DonDiego.


(Happened to be up early this morning and tried to see it, but the skies weren’t cooperating.)

Still cloudy in Indianapolis area.

We don't usually see the sun until March!!

You prolly have much better weather. Thank you for the info. If the clouds part and I am not working that nite, I will check it out.!!

"Follow the arc (in the handle of the big dipper) to Arcturus and speed onto Spica" is how I always taught my kids to locate stars.

bleach

I was up and on the beach before dawn to surf the last two mornings. Could see Arcturus just fine despite a slight haze (sea fret) but what I believe is the comet is too dim to discern the tail even with Binoculars.