Tonight we put on our jackets and went shivering out into the cold to peer at the sky and glimpse our first comet. 

Of course, even with binoculars, it still looked more like a tiny splat of pea soup than a comet, or maybe a place where someone had smudged the erasor of their pencil across the night sky.  But I enjoyed imagining it as a hurtling ball of ice with a thick tail spread behind.

We located Comet Holmes using an interactive sky chart at Sky and Telescope.  I’m sure the folks over there have better viewing equipment than our small potatoes binoculars, but they couldn’t have gotten a bigger thrill.

Many of you can go take a look for yourselves.  Or, if your not so into shivering at fuzzy blobs and your brother-in-law permanently borrowing your telescope, you can go to Amazing Space and learn all kinds of comet legends and trivia while sitting snug inside.