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Comet Ikeya-Zhang March 3, 2002
On February 1, 2002 this comet was discovered in the evening sky by two amateur astronomers—Kaoru Ikeya of Japan and Daqing Zhang of China. Comet Ikeya-Zhang has now become bright enough to be just visible to the unaided eye. This composite color image, captured with a wide-field telescope by Gerald Rhemann (Kometenfotos), shows the active comet's bright, condensed coma and a delightful array of subtle structures in its developing tail. The bluish tail stretches for 5 degrees or so against a background of stars in the constellation Pisces. In the coming days look for the comet hanging low in the western evening sky (below a bright yellowish Mars), eventually becoming difficult to see in the March twilight. On March 18 the comet makes its closest approach to the sun at 50 million miles. After April begins, Ikeya-Zhang will become a predawn object climbing higher into the morning sky as the month progresses. Refined calculations indicate that Comet Ikeya-Zhang (now cataloged as comet C/2002 C1) last visited the inner Solar System 341 years ago, in 1661, when it was recorded as a bright comet.