Giddy Smatterers Gazing West,

Newsround used to give fair warning of astronomical phenomena. I’m the type of fellow who used to try to see the meteor shower, comet, eclipse or whatever they flagged up. I never have much luck and I’ve still to achieve my ambition of seeing the Northern Lights (this might be considered an atmospheric phenomenon).

On very clear nights, it’s quite possible to see the odd shooting star, meteors the size of double-decker buses burn up in the atmosphere all the time. It was nice to see the Hale-Bopp comet outside my window every night when it visited for weeks, but that was so spectacular that everyone probably saw it. Then there’s all that junk that humans have put up into space, artificial satellites are seen easily enough.

I’m quite excited about the Comet McNaught, I heard about it on Radio Scotland this morning and I decided to look for it on the way home from work. I did try to take a route home that incorporated some decent vantage points but I still couldn’t see it. I resigned myself to trying to see it better at the weekend but just as I drove up my cul-de-sac, I saw it. It’s just a bright light like a normal star with a hazy tail, it’s only a lump of ice but I think it’s great.

Someone nearly ruined it for me by asking, “What’s a comet? Is it a falling star?”

Comet McNaught, or C/2006 P1 as it's catalogued, can be seen quite low in the sky by looking towards the Sun either as it rises or as it sets (when it's more visible). It’s around for the next few days; its brightness is expected to be most intense on Sunday as it comes closest to the Sun.