Zero. It's about as good as it's going to get. Just from memory, I think the moon will ruin the view during peak brightness; the next couple of weeks. BTW, I don't consider Hale-Bopp a "great" comet. Close, but no cigar (or cigarette); it was a "really good" comet. It pales in comparison to comet West, which was about 20 times larger and a magnitude or two brighter. Coincidentally, both appeared in the same part of the morning sky. I think what made West so great, aside from apparent size, was that it was visible in a fully dark sky; while Hyakutake was at least twice as long, West was much, much brighter. Patrick, I think the comet you saw in the late '50's was probably Arend-Roland. If yours had a prominent anti-tail, it was probably Arend-Roland.

From: Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 08:32:50 -0700 Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Comet Macholtz

So, what are the chances the Macholtz will be a great one? Thanks, Joe

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