Remembering the mighty Ikeya-Seki

Promising for visual observers, is now moving south rather swiftly and should become well placed during October. Discovered as an 18.3-magnitude object on November 27 last year by B.M. Africano at Mt Lemmon Observatory (Arizona), this dynamically new object reached perihelion (at 1.45 a.u.) on September 5 and passed closest to our planet (at 0.49 a.u.) on September 27. October opens with the comet in Pisces, crossing into Aquarius on the 4th, at a predicted magnitude of 9 to 10. Being quite close to Earth, it will likely be rather large and diffuse, so large tripod-mounted binoculars or wide-field telescopes should be the best instruments for observing it.