According to Lynn Carroll of the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory it is not often that a comet will glow 1 million times brighter, but The Holmes Comet has done just that.
The brightness of this comet is about the same as the stars in The Big Dipper. Because of the brightness, it can be seen even with the full moon we are currently experiencing.
The Holmes Comet is orbiting between the path of Mars and Jupiter in the northeastern sky.
Currently the comet looks like a big fuzzball according to Bob Grossfeld who is the director of Sunriver Observatory. This comet does not currently have a tail like the ones you may have seen in the past.
The brightness this comet has shown was recorded 115 years ago, it is not known if it will grow brighter or dimmer over the next couple nights.
The exciting part of this is if the weather holds, you can take a peek at this unusual event at the Sunriver Observatory. Tonight is the last regular night it is open, it will open for a few days around the holidays.
If you are near Sunriver and would like to see The Holmes Comet up close and personal tonight is your night to go. The Sunriver Observatory will be open from 8 to 10 pm tonight you can use the telescopes to view Jupiter before it goes out ofsight for the evening as well as see the different constellations and The Holmes Comet.
Not near Sunriver but want to see what is happening in space? My favorite website is http://www.spaceweather.com/ check it out, there is some pretty cool stuff