It’s Now Or Never To Catch A Glimpse of Comet Lovejoy — Dave’s Diary

Well maybe not "never"  but how about 100 centuries!  Central Washington University Sky Watchers are saying we should enjoy a good view of the Comet Lovejoy, or C/2014 Q2, which should be visible to the unaided eye under good conditions for the next 10 days.

If all goes well with visibility, it will appear to the right side of the constellations Orion and Taurus, now visible in the southern sky.

To see the comet, viewers should face due south, and look to the three stars that make up Orion’s belt.  The comet should appear a little to the right of Orion’s belt or the snout of Taurus the bull and the best time to see the comet should be after 8:00 p.m  away from any city lights.

The comet head has a vivid green color, due to carbon molecules fluorescing in the sun’s ultraviolet light.

The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy in August 2014—his fifth comet discovery. It passed closest to earth—44 million miles—on January 7. The comet is known as a very long-period comet, whose orbital period is 11,500 years. The next time it will be visible to anyone on Earth will be roughly 10,000 years from now.