Bright Comet Coming - Comet Machholz (C/2004 Q2)

Starman posts -
We're long overdue for a super comet. I've been waiting a good part of a
lifetime for it. I dream about a comet whose tail extends across the
night sky for 40-degrees or more, with a nucleus that rivals Venus at
it's brightest. That comet will certainly come. It's just a matter of
time and the good luck to be alive when it does arrive.


In fact we have recently lived through (well at least some of us were around
;-} ) the most prolific period of bright comets in at least 500 and perhaps as
long as 1,000 years. Between 1957 and 1976 there were 6 "Great Comets" and
about half a dozen NEAT/LINEAR-like ones...all in the space of just twenty
years!

The past two decades have actually been historically typical for cometary
activity, with just a few fairly bright objects spread over a similar span of
time. While a new major object could in theory be just around the corner,
remember that between 1912 and 1956 there were no bright comets easily visible
from midnorthern latitudes!

JBortle