When the sun sets tonight and the sky is clear, go outside and look west. You may see the brightest comet in thirty years over the city! It is the comet C/2006 P1, also called McNaught after its discoverer. For the next few days the comet is passing the sun at the relatively close distance of 25,4 million kilometres and can be easily spotted by the naked eye as a very bright object in the sky.

During 12.1.-15.1.2007 it will be passing through the field of view of the satellite “SOHO”. Astronomers hope to get spectacular views of the comet by utilizing SOHO's LASCO C3 camera. You can watch the images as well at the following webpage: