Chance to view comet last seen in 1661

This weekend will offer "a very good chance" to see the third brightest comet since Hale Bopp streaked across Britain's skies six years ago, the Met Office said today.

Comet Ikeya-Zhang has been visible as a small wisp of light or faint smudge low in the western sky since the middle of last month. It should be visible from about 9pm today across the whole of the United Kingdom for at least the next few days.

In areas where the sky is dark, it should be fairly easy to see with the naked eye. However, in London and most of the South-East, where light pollution is a serious problem for would-be astronomers, it will probably be necessary to use binoculars.

The comet passed within 47 million miles of the sun near midnight on 18 March. As it heads back towards the outer solar system, on 30 April, it will pass within 38 million miles of the earth. So far it has appeared close to the sun in the evening sky. It will remain so until the middle of this month when it will be close to the w-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia.

With ideal conditions and looking through binoculars, it may be possible to see two separate tails, a bright one caused by dust from the comet and a fainter bluer one created by gas.

The comet is named after the Japanese and Chinese astronomers who found it on 1 February. Robin Scagell, from the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "The comet has a pronounced tail extending over five to 10 degrees, which is about 10 times as long as the width of the moon."

Ikeya-Zhang is a periodic comet, which means it returns to the inner solar system on a regular basis. It would have been visible in 1661 and may also have been seen in 1273 and 877.

?Tony Blair must raise the threat that asteroids pose to earth with President George Bush when the pair meet at the "Lone Star Summit" in Texas, an MP said today. Liberal Democrat Lembit Opik was speaking after scientists warned that one asteroid has a one-in-300 chance of colliding with the earth and ending civilisation. The kilometre-wide asteroid is not expected to hit the earth until 2880.

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