Comet Machholz Shines!
By Alan M. MacRobert

  
In photographs, Comet Machholz (C/2004 Q2) has been showing a blue gas tail and the edge of an orange-yellowish dust tail emerging at very different angles from the coma. Johannes Schedler in Austria took this picture on December 12, 2004, using a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 lens on an SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera. Courtesy Johannes Schedler.


  
  
December 22, 2004 | If you haven't gone out yet to look for Comet Machholz west of Orion, you're missing the big sky event of this holiday season. The comet is a fine sight in binoculars, glowing at 4th magnitude pale greenish gray — a large fuzzcloud with a brighter core set against a background of pinpoint stars. This week it's about 13° west of Orion's Shield, high up in good view in the southeast after about 8 p.m. See our article and finder chart in the January Sky & Telescope, page 84, or online.
Unfortunately a bright Moon lights the sky until about Wednesday, December 29th. In a dark sky the comet has been easily visible to the naked eye; through moonlight or light pollution it's visible to the naked eye with greater difficulty if at all. Basically, if you can see the Andromeda Galaxy, you can definitely see Machholz.