Comet Hale-Bopp is at its best from...

Comet Hale-Bopp is at its best from about March 25 through April 10. Look for it very low in the northwest as soon as the sky is dark. At 7 p.m. it is 14 degrees high, and it sets at 8:53. This compact comet is brighter than anything in the night sky except Sirius, Mars and the moon. A telescope would reveal marvelous structure near the nucleus where dust is spiraling outward to form the tail. Hale-Bopp, left, photographed by Bob Yen through a telephoto lens March 11 in the Mojave Desert.

Source: John Moseley, Griffth Obervatory