Discovered by Terry Lovejoy in Australia on 17th August 2014, comet Lovejoy Q2 will be the brightest comet for some years. It can be seen easily through binoculars or a keen eye.
It wont be back for abot 8000 years, so take a look at it now.
It will be closest to Earth on 7th Jan 2015 at a distance of 43 million miles.
I'm really quite surprised at how fast this comet is travelling against the stars in the background. Currently its quite low in the sky below Rigel in the constellation of Orion but in just 8 days it will be as high as Orion's belt.
Taken on 30/12/2014, this gif is made from 15
x 90 second exposures at ISO 1600. I used a canon 40D and a Meade 105etx
tracked using my home made arduino driven barndoor mount.
In all its about 25 minutes in real time.
Here is a screen dump from Stellarium (free amazing software) showing the current position of the comet,
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