• How to see bright Comet ATLAS (Earth and Sky)

April and May actually have a lot of potentially cool things to offer. The comet Atlas continues to brighten in the northern sky. The Southern Hemisphere had comet McNaught a few years ago, and it is finally our time. This bright comet is readily visible in small telescopes as it arcs away from the big dipper. You can find its position in software like Stellarium as long as you have applied recent updates. While it is cool that it is visible in small telescopes, what is even better is that in late April and early May this comet has the potential to become the first major naked-eye comet of this century. According to Earth and Sky, some models predict that this comet will max out between +2 and -6 in magnitude. This makes its total light somewhere between the brightness of Betelgeuse… and brighter than anything else regularly in the sky. Note I said total brightness – that light will be spread out over the coma of the comet, so it’s not like you’ll be able to read by the light of this comet, but it still has truly amazing potential to add a reason to go outside and look up. Fair warning though, Comets have a tendency to periodically just plain fall apart, and sometimes the fizzle out. We make no promises, but I give it good odds that we will finally get ourselves a naked eye comet.