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Comet Ikeya-Zhang will be visible until end of the month For good viewing, take your binoculars to a high place with an unobstructed western horizon away from city lights By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune The chance to see a space traveler on a four-century journey is drawing to a close. Southern Oregon residents can see Comet Ikeya-Zhang in the western sky at evening twilight. As soon as the sky gets dark, the comet can be seen just to the right of and a little higher than Venus for the next few days, said Medford amateur astronomer David Bloomsness. "It's not huge, but it's a good comet," Bloomsness said. "It's definitely worth looking at." Binoculars probably give the average person the best view of Ikeya-Zhang, Bloomsness said. Small telescopes also work, but those with a narrow viewing field may obscure part of the comet's tail, he added. A high place with an unobstructed western horizon out of reach of city lights will provide a good viewing point, he said. Detected on Feb. 1 by amateur astronomers in Japan and China, Ikeya-Zhang is bright enough to see with the naked eye. Observers should be able to see the comet's bright tail and star-like nucleus surrounded by a fuzzy cloud of dust and gas, called the coma. The comet's tail streaks point nearly straight up from the horizon. "You'll know it when you see it," Bloomsness said. Ikeya-Zhang will be directly above the Andromeda galaxy, the brightest galaxy in the sky, on Thursday, Bloomsness said. Each night that the comet has been visible in Southern Oregon it was in a different position, he added. It was getting brighter over the past few weeks but it likely won't get any more brilliant, he said, Starting in mid-April, Southern Oregon viewers can see the comet in the north-eastern early morning sky, Bloomsness said. It likely will remain visible just before dawn until nearly the end of the month, he said. As it heads out of the solar system, the comet will pass within 37.5 million miles of Earth on April 29 when it will be the brightest. The comet passed closest to the sun on March 18 when it was visible near the horizon during late evening twilight. The clumps of rock and ice that appear as comets were made when the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago from the same material that made the planets and the sun. When orbits take them far from the sun, the low temperature of deep space keeps the comet frozen. As they come close to the sun, comets heat up, emitting gases and dust that reflects the sun's rays and makes the comets visible from Earth. Ikeya-Zhang reportedly was last seen in 1661 on an earlier journey through the solar system. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.