Up in the western skies

Was it space junk returning to earth? Perhaps it was a Celestial phenomenon known as a sun dog? Or maybe it was something more ominous and earth changing?

An unusually clear sky for the Northwest on Wednesday night had many a Podunkian casting eyes skyward at sunset, wondering just what was that sparkling light in the skies towards the west.

Such was the intensity of the light, that a few locals logged onto the local bulletin board htmf, in order to throw out their own theories as to what was appearing in the sky out past the airport.

While the ideas bounced around led to a number of options, as it turns out last nights celestial show was a comet, known as Comet McNaught it's proving to be a rather remarkably bright comet that is about to disappear behind the sun.

Rupertites will be forgiven for their excitement over the appearance of bright lights in the skies, as many are aware the winter months in our corner of the world are normally quite dark and generally afflicted by heavy bands of rain which make gazing upwards a rather risky and wet proposition.

The comet passes through the Northern Pacific skies for at least one more night and with any luck the cloud cover coming our way will hold off for at least one more evening, giving those with a waterfront view a good look of the light show from space.

It's a time limited offer however, once the comet passes behind the Sun it will reappear in the southern hemisphere, which means that Northwest comet gazers haven't much more time to enjoy the show.

Oh, by the way that bright circular object in the skies this morning, that’s called the Sun, we see that from time to time here as well, a little more frequently than comets, but not by much!