If you are serious about comet hunting then you will need to use a telescope. I highly recommend a moderate to large aperture Newtonian reflector in the 6” – 16” range on a simple alt-azimuth mount which will allow you to sweep the sky in comfort...Read my comet hunting PRIMER. Also check out the new Nightskyhunter COMET GALLERY.

Comet hunting is a discipline, a way of observing the sky like no other as the sky will decide what you might see compared to the conventional approach were the observer is in charge, here you are the watchman but it's the sky that is in charge! MORE

Times have changed. Now amateurs face a real threat from a host of prolific professional surveys that have emerged onto the scene since the late 1990’s MORE

In 1997 I got to see my first comet, a friend and I had been driving... MORE

See my comet sketches , statistics, observed list and what comets are visible NOW.

Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) - A breathtaking Summer nights dream!

These clouds are mysterious in the extreme and observations and images are sought after by researchers making this field of astronomy and meteorology one of the few areas where amateur observers can contribute to science. The genesis of the Noctilucent clouds are as elusive as the clouds themselves.....

An early observer of NLCs, Robert Leslie, gives a striking account of these clouds describing them as...'weird small cloud forms, at times very regular, like ripple marks in sand, or the bones of some great fish or saurian embedded on a slab of stone'...read my NLC observing ARTICLE.

View the nightskyhunter 2006, 2007, 2008 and new 2009 NLC Galleries.

The Moon is the closest most detailed celestial body in the heavens. It is a glorious geology book waiting to be read with a telescope of any size. Watch its phases, walk along its impact craters and soak up the silent crimson splendor of its emotional eclipses which delight us at all hours of the night.

Visit the nightskyhunter Moon GALLERY.