Comet Leonard - when is the best time to see it from Ireland?

hatrickpatrick

I'm a little confused about Comet Leonard. Throughout the year I've been hearing that December 12th is the best day to see it and that it will appear shortly before dawn quite low on the horizon, giving a fairly small window of opportunity. However, several tweets over the last week have suggested that there are only a few days left to see it from Ireland or the UK, which seems to clash with other information pointing to December 12th.

The skies are supposed to be very clear tonight following the departure of Storm Barra, would tonight be a good night to go out and have a look? And if so, at what time?

greedygoblin

It's pretty much exactly as you have described it yourself. It's best seen just before dawn (from ~5am onwards) leading up to and including December 12th. From the 13th on it's probably that bit too close to the sun to be seen from our latitude. It's closest approach to the sun occurs on January 3rd (if it survives!)