[Right Wing Professor]

Worth a look if you're somewhere with a dark sky. I found it with non-dark adapted eyes in less than 5 minutes wtih a pair of 9 X 63 binoculars. I think you could see it with unaided eyes in a very dark sky if you dark-adapted for 1/2 hour. It looked brighter to me than Sky and Telescope's prediction; in a few days it should be a fairly easy naked eye object. I had it at -22 degres south, 4h 42 R.A. this evening at 9;30 CDT.

Finding it: draw a line between Betelgeuse, the top left, reddish star in Orion, to Rigel (the bright bottom right star). Go further along that line the same distance again. The comet is right there. It's about 2 degrees (the length of Orion's belt) south of 54 Eridani, which is really the only star easily visible to the unaided eye in the region; it's moving north, and by December 12 should be due East of 54 Eridani. By early January it will be much brighter and next to the Pleiades.

[Nateman]

There was a comet a few years ago that went right over the north star.It was like the night sky itself was a giant clock and the comet was its hour hand. Pretty neat.

[RightWingAtheist]

Tsk! Letting the amateurs beat you guys at your own game :-).

[LibWhacker]

It was spotted by naked-eye observers for the first time about three weeks ago . . .

Amazing naked-eye observers can still make discoveries like this.

[AntiGuv]

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[REDWOOD99]

All I see is the moon and a bunch of dots.

[CurlyBill]

Ping!

[ChefKeith]

Could you put that into laymans (farm people) terms please?

[alancarp]

This was described at space.com as the estimated position on January 5th, 8pm local time, at the northern mid-latitudes.

[two23]

bump for later--

[kayak]

bttt

[FreedomCalls]

Comet Machholz

Coarse finder chart (60° field-of-view, stars to mag. 6.5)

Fine finder chart (5° field-of-view, stars to mag. 9.0)

All data valid for local time 06:09:45, 09 Dec (UTC 05:09:45, 09 Dec)

Geocentric Data
Right Ascension (J2000):	4h 41m 19.6s
Declination (J2000):	-22° 28' 26"
Constellation:	Eridanus
Magnitude:	5.6
Distance from Earth:	0.5269 AU
Light time:	263 seconds

Heliocentric Data
Distance from Sun:	1.4045 AU
Perihelion:	1.2051 AU (24-Jan-2005)
Aphelion:	4,838.51 AU
Period:	119,039.8 years
Eccentricity:	0.999502
Inclination to ecliptic:	38.589°
Longitude of ascending node:	93.627°
Argument of perihelion:	19.502°

[concentric circles]

From Sky and Telescope: Comet symbols show it's position at
0:00 Universal Time on the dates indicated; which is on the
evening of the previous date local time in North America.

[My2Cents]

[Eastbound]

Found it. I think. It's the only fuzzy object in the area. Pretty big through the binocs. Using a 12x50 zoom at wide angle. Seems a little on top of the line you drew. Is that correct?

[dc-zoo]

Naked Eye.. sounds a bit Ob Seen.

[Kirkwood]

Graat! Ill be high up in the mountains around Jan 5 and 6 and hopefully will have clear skies.

[Angry Enough]

Is this any relation to Comet LouHolz?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Thanks for the viewing information. My husband is an excellent amateur astronomer. We have an 8" Celestron in a trunk which we'll have to get out and use to find this comet, of course. :-)

[apastron]