This evening I went out the back and checked out the stars. Orion was hovering in the South-West sky, with Jupiter and Saturn above. The Moon was still a crescent, floating between Saturn and Mars, with Venus way down on the horizon, about to dip behind the mountains.

Somewhere out there above the Western horizon in the constellation Aries is Comet Ikeya-Zhang which I am reliably informed has now achieved naked-eye brightness. Unfortunately I could not see it. Admittedly the twilight glow was making everything except Venus hard to pick out, and experts say the comet will brighten still more in the coming weeks.

I’ll keep you posted.