THERE IS a comet in the sky, writes STUART ATKINSON. If it follows experts' predictions (and comets often don't) Comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto might - might! - be bright enough to see with the naked eye this coming weekend.
'Naked eye' is a rather misleading term though. Readers of a certain age might remember a lovely naked eye comet in the spring of 1986, called Comet Hale-Bopp. It was a stunning sight with a bright, v-shaped tail, and was immediately obvious to the naked eye as soon as the sky started to darken. Unfortunately Y1 is no Comet Hale-Bopp. The best we can hope for is that it will look like a small, fuzzy, out of focus star to the naked eye over the next week or so, to the upper right of the Sickle of Leo. If you don't know what or where that is, look for a back-to-front question mark of stars halfway between the Big Dipper and Orion, and look to the upper right of it.
If Y1 isn't bright enough to be seen with the naked eye it should be visible through a pair of binoculars as a small, fuzzy smudge, but you'll need a very clear, very dark sky, away from light pollution, and with no bright Moon shining in it to have any real hope of seeing it. Good luck.
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