There are many popular misconceptions in astronomy. For example, that Polaris, the Pole Star, is the brightest star in the sky (it's actually only the 48th-brightest), that the Plough is a constellation (it's an asterism – a small, eye-catching pattern of stars within a constellation) or that during a meteor shower you'll see dozens of shooting stars at the same time (in reality you might see one skip across the sky on its own every couple of minutes or so).
One of the most popular misconceptions is that comets are rare visitors to our skies. Comets bright enough to be seen with the naked eye rare, but on any night of the year you'll be able to see perhaps a dozen faint comets up there, if you know where to point your binoculars or telescope. You can see this for yourself using
