Last night "motorists in Bloemfontein, South Africa, stopped to look at a strange 'bush fire' on the horizon," reports photographer Gerrit Penning. "It turned out to be the extravagant tail of Comet McNaught!"
Even experienced astronomers have never seen anything like it--a sweeping fan of comet dust visible to the unaided eye despite city lights and twilight. Jamie Newman sends this picture from Auckland, New Zealand:
Frequently asked questions: What makes the tail glow? Comet dust shines by reflected sunlight. Why is the tail curved? Because it traces the curved path of the comet's orbit around the sun.
The tail curves so much and stretches so far that it actually leads all the way back to the northern hemisphere where streamers can be seen glowing faintly in the western sky after sundown. "I wasn't really expecting to see anything," confesses Nejc Ucman of Novo Mesto, Slovenia, "but I went to a nearby hill tonight, looked west, and there it was!"
This marks the fourth night in a row that observers have spotted the comet's tail in northern skies. Dan Laszlo of the Northern Colorado Astronomical Society saw it on Jan. 17th and offers this advice: "Find the darkest sky you can and look west between one and two hours after sunset. A site where you can see zodiacal light would be best."
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