Amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake discovered the Great Comet of 1996 in January of that year. Late in March, Comet Hyakutake sailed past the North Pole with a tail stretching half way across the sky.

A year earlier, two other amateurs, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, independently discovered another notable comet. Comet Hale-Bopp coasted toward the sun and became bright enough to be observed without a telescope late in 1996 and early in ’97.

New comets are discovered every year but ones as bright as Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp are rare.

2013 could be another great year for comets. Given the unpredictable nature of comets, “could” is an important word, but two recently-discovered objects are due to make a close pass through the Solar System this year and, if they brighten as much as hoped, could bring some extra excitement to our night skies.

One thing has definitely changed, however: more discoveries are now made by robotic telescope arrays than by amateurs peering through a friend’s telescope the way Tom Bopp did in 1995. More discoveries are known by the acronyms of instrument systems.

Comet PanSTARRS, discovered in June of last year with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System on Maui, will pass the sun this coming March. It could shine brightly in the west after sunset.

Comet ISON was discovered just three months ago with the International Scientific Optical Network outside of Kislovodsk, Russia. If ISON is as bright as expected, it should shine over the eastern horizon before dawn in November.

So it’s been a while but we could, at last, have another great year for comets. Could.

HAPPY PERIHELION: Early today, January 2, 2013, Earth’s slightly elliptical orbit brought it to within 91.4 million miles (147.1 kilometers) of the sun. This is the closest we will come to the fire this year.

THE LATEST SUNRISE of the year will occur on the morning of Friday, January 4. The earliest sunset was last month on December 7 and the days have been getting longer since the winter solstice on December 21.

THE MORNING MOON will rise in the east-southeast near the planet Saturn on Sunday the 6th. Look for the pale yellow planet left of the crescent moon after 2:30 am. Around 6:30 am on January 10, a very thin crescent moon will be just left of Venus. Moon and planet should be bright enough to see easily in the morning twilight.