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Comet Lovejoy promises to become visible to the unaided eyes soon

Just in time for the New Year, a fast-paced comet appears to be heading our way from deep space to skywatchers’ delight.

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), discovered by its namesake Australian astronomer this past August, has been slowly brightening from a target only visible through giant telescopes to one easily seen through binoculars. Now it’s becoming visible to unaided eyes from dark locations.

And if predictions hold true the icy visitor from the dark outer reaches of the solar system will continue to brighten the next few weeks as it gets closer to Earth passing about 70 million kilometres away from us on Jan. 7. That’s about as close as planet Mars can ever get to us. When Lovejoy does zip by us, it should be faintly visible without any telescope or binoculars even from brightly light suburban skies.

And for the newbie skywatcher, finding the comet is made easier thanks to it running through the landmark, bright constellations Orion, the Hunter, and Taurus the Bull, now rising in the early evenings in the southeast. Both stellar patterns are bright and easily recognizable, even within light-polluted cities.

The best time to begin your hunt for Lovejoy is at least a couple of hours after sunset when it first pokes its head above the southeast horizon. By mid-evening, it should be about 30 degrees in altitude about equal to the height of a stack of three fists held at arm’s length.

To the naked eye right now, the comet is only really visible as a tiny, fuzzy, ball even under dark skies. Binoculars will reveal a ghostly green-coloured head attached to a wispy, long, tail sweeping back.

Astronomers are excited to get detailed views of Lovejoy since they believe comets are cosmic time-capsules of when the solar system was just forming 4.5 billion years ago.

Lovejoy is believed to take as long as 40,000 years to make one trip around the Sun. It’s considered a long-period comet that probably originated from the Oort Cloud, a frozen reservoir of hibernating comets many times farther way from us than even the wayward dwarf planet Pluto.

Its long orbit also means that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this icy visitor.

For those having a hard time tracking it down, Sky and Telescope offers some nifty sky charts. For those not feeling the urge to get out under those cold nights, the Virtual Telescope Project will offer live webcast views through telescopes on Jan. 6 and 11.