• Comets

Comet 8P/Tuttle can be seen passing through the northern sky from the area around Polaris at the beginning of the month into Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Triangulum by the end of the month.

• Comets

Comet C/2007 F1 was discovered on March 19th. The name LONEOS is an acronym for the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search, a project that searches for asteroids and comets.

• Comets

Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will be passing closer to Earth than any other comet in more than twenty years. Scientists will be able to watch a comet as it goes through its last stage of its existence-its break-up.

• Unmanned Spacecraft
• Comets
• Solar System

NASA launched the spacecraft Deep Impact on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 on a mission to Comet Tempel 1. The 820-pound spacecraft will travel 268 million miles, more than 80 million miles from Earth and just beyond the orbit of Mars, to crash into the 9-mile wide comet at a speed of 23,000 miles per hour. The impact will be equivalent to 4.5 tons of TNT exploding. The debris from the comet poses no threat to Earth, neither will the slight change in the comet’s orbital path.

• Comets
• Solar System

The only comet visible to the naked eye this month is Comet C/2004 Q2, now named Macholz. It is only “naked eye” if viewed from a dark location. Near city lights, binoculars are necessary. Take time to get dark adjusted (about 20 minutes is recommended) before trying to locate the comet.