New Comet C/2014 E2

A new, potentially bright comet has been discovered by a team in Brazil.Currently only visible from the Southern Hemisphere. C/2014 E2 (Jacques) is currently somewhere between magnitude 11.5 and 13 (the predicted ephemeris values are around 14.5, but this is incorrect). It may get to be as bright as magnitude 8, or even a bit more. At the very least it will be an easy object in small telescopes, if not binoculars.

It is just outside the orbit of Mars at the moment, and is already showing a nice little tail and a decent coma, despite substantial interference from Moonlight. For the next few nights viewing will be difficult with the nearly full Moon close to the comet, but after Tuesday the comet rises before the Moon and will be better to see.

C/2014 E2 is moving rapidly, it is currently skimming between Hydra and the Milky way, and there should be some nice imaging opportunities. From now to approximately 25 May the comet will be well placed for imaging. After this it is too low in the evening twilight.You can get an ephemeris from the minor planet ephemeris service.

The comet is at Perihelion on 3 July, but will be too close to the Sun to see. After perihelion it will be a northern hemisphere object only, but still reasonably bright. It is closest to Earth on August 30th, when it is 0.57 AU away, and will probably be around magnitude 8 or 9 at this time.