Comet Leonard to appear this weekend

If you are an early riser you may want to get your binoculars or telescope out. Comet Leonard will be visible just before the morning sunrise on Saturday and Sunday morning. Leonard is roughly one light year out from the sun. The President of the Lethbridge Astronomy Society, Tom Anderson, says the comet will be travelling 160,000 miles or 257,000 kilometres per hour.

“Comet Leonard is approaching the sun. What it’s going to do is it’s going to go behind the sun and then it’s going to head on out of the solar system. It’s visible in the morning sky. You have to be out there in the early morning before sunrise and looking toward the eastern horizon. You will probably need binoculars. It’s not a bright object. You’re going to have to do a little hunting to find it.”

Anderson says even though Comet Leonard appears near to the human eye, it is still 21 million miles away.