10-26-2013, 09:17 AM
Thanks for the links, Hikatz, and they seem to confirm my own analysis of the comet's ephemeris data. SBH, the comet is only visible just before sunrise at the moment and is faint (you need binoculars). It should become visible again mid-December (if it survives its encounter with the sun) and might be visible to the naked eye around Christmas again shortly before sunrise, but predicting comet brightnesses is notoriously difficult to do. This comet is a sungrazer meaning it passes extremely close to the sun in its orbit. It may not survive closest approach which means it might not be visible in December at all because it'll have broken up. We'll have to wait and see.