No promises, as comets are notoriously unpredictable, but by the time you read this we should have a comet in the night sky that's bright enough to be seen through binoculars.

For the next week, Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy will slowly drift across the sky beneath Orion. To see it you'll need to be somewhere dark, with no lights and no tress or buildings on the southern horizon.

After your eyes have adapted to the darkness, scan the sky beneath Orion with your binoculars, and if you see what looks like a misty, out of focus star, that's the comet. It might even have a faint, stubby tail. Good luck!

Stuart Atkinson

Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal