New Comet.....

[acropolite]

Anyone notice the reference to a new comet in the Bintel April Night Sky Newsletter, Comet C/K9p Rover, gotta be an april fools joke...:D

[Greg Bryant]

Phil,

Yep...April Fool indeed. Each year, when Bintel's April newsletter comes out, I'm always eager to look.

As for current comets...

C/2003 T4 (LINEAR) is in the pre-dawn sky at 8th magnitude, a little fainter than had been expected.

9P/Tempel 1 is slowly brightening. July 4 is its big day, when it gets hit with a lump of copper, courtesy of the Deep Impact probe. Some forecasts have the comet brightening to 6th or even 5th magnitude as a result.

Rob McNaught, at Siding Spring, has discovered a new comet. C/2005 E2 (McNaught) may reach 10th magnitude by the end of this year.

...and it's only a year to go until 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 returns. It makes an exceptionally close passage past Earth and may be visible to the unaided eye.