The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught
			
		
		
			Image Credit & Copyright:  
Robert H. McNaught
		
		
			Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, grew a spectacularly long and filamentary tail.  
The magnificent 
tail spread across the sky and was visible for several days to 
Southern Hemisphere observers just after sunset.  
The amazing tail showed its greatest extent on long-duration, 
wide-angle camera exposures.  
During some times, 
just the tail itself 
estimated to attain a
peak brightness of  
magnitude -5 (minus five), 
was caught by the 
comet's discoverer in the 
above image just after sunset in January 2007 from 
Siding Spring Observatory in 
Australia.
Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in decades, then   
faded as it moved further into southern 
skies and away from the 
Sun and 
Earth.
Within the next two weeks of 2013, rapidly brightening 
Comet ISON might sprout a tail that
rivals even 
Comet McNaught.