Near-misses with the Sun

The close of winter and early spring does not look like being a promising period with respect to bright comets. But, as I mentioned in the previous issue, the distant object

will drift slowly through Taurus throughout this time and, even on initial conservative predictions, may become visually accessible to those with larger telescopes by early spring. Indeed, if the reported brightness of this object just before vanishing into twilight in autumn represents anything more than a brief outburst, the comet may be significantly brighter than the early predictions. Observers with large instruments and good skies