Discovery of C/2006 P1

C/2006 P1, usually called Comet McNaught, was discovered by the astronomer Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. It became the brightest comet in more than forty years, since Ikeya–Seki in 1965, and in January 2007 it was visible in daylight to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere saw its most spectacular display in the weeks after it passed perihelion, with a long, fan-shaped tail stretching across the evening sky for tens of degrees. The comet followed a nearly parabolic orbit on a first pass through the inner Solar System and will not return for a very long time, if it ever does. It was also observed by the SOHO solar observatory.

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