Although only January, this may be the most photogenic comet of the year.

V1 was discovered in November of 2002 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program. It is unlikely that anyone we know has or ever will see this comet before or again. It is traveling in an orbit that brings it around to our vacinity every 37,000 years.

It passed closest to Earth on December 24 at about 74 million miles. It is approaching perihelion and will come closest to the Sun on Feb 18 when it will be an amazing one million miles from the Sun at that time.

On the night this image was taken, V1 was about 81 million miles from the Earth. You can still see this comet in the Western sky just after sunset.

For more information and images see.....Comet V1