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Bright Comet Meets Bright Galaxy
Los Angeles - Apr 02, 2002 Amateur astronomers throughout the Northern Hemisphere have marked Thursday, April 4th, on their calendars. That evening, weather permitting, they'll be looking low in the northwest after sunset to spot a bright comet very near the famous Andromeda Galaxy. The comet, which was discovered on February 1st, is named Ikeya-Zhang [pronounced "ee-KAY-uh JONG"] for the two keen-eyed skygazers who first spotted it. Remarkably, both the comet and the galaxy are visible to the unaided eye -- at least for anyone with clear, dark skies far from the pall of city lights. The view through binoculars or a small telescope should be especially rewarding, as these two celestial spectacles crowd into the same field of view. According to Sky & Telescope magazine, on that evening the comet passes within 1.5 degrees of the galaxy's center. Comet Ikeya-Zhang will then be 82 million kilometers (51 million miles) from Earth, while the Andromeda Galaxy lies 300 billion times farther away (2.5 million light-years). Even though it passed closest to the Sun on March 18th, Comet Ikeya-Zhang has remained steady in brightness for the past two weeks, delighting skywatchers with its starlike nucleus and delicate, wispy tail.
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