The faint Comet Lovejoy continues to appear high in our eastern sky in the evening. It is a beautiful object amid a starry background. Every night offers a slight change in position. Comet Lovejoy appears as a fuzzy ball through a pair of binoculars. The best way to find it is to use a star chart prepared specifically for the nights you are viewing.

The comet is moving north through the zodiacal constellations Taurus into Aries and moving north. On Jan. 19, the comet appears to the right, a short distance away from the star cluster Pleiades. The comet is moving very slowly, so you get another similar view on Jan. 20 through 22. We’ll be able to watch the comet for weeks to come as it continues to move back out of the solar system.

At least for this weekend, point your binoculars at the Pleiades and then move a short distance to the right and the comet will appear.

Astrophotographers are able to record the extremely faint tail that extends quite a distance outward from the comet. For the rest of us, the comet just looks like a fuzz ball with no tail. The comet is magnitude 3.8, which means with good vision you can barely see it without a telescope.

In the sky, the comet itself is tiny, but the glow around it makes it comparable in visual size to that of the moon.

Dark skies over the Vineyard make for ideal conditions, which makes us far more fortunate than our friends who live in brightly lit communities.