Return of a Great Daytime Comet? Ison

Local skywatchers might get to see a spectacular comet — in the daytime.

That would be comet ISON, discovered in 2012. It's visibility hinges on the comet's survival in its trip around the sun.

It depends on whether the sun's heat vaporizes ices in the comet's body, scientists said in an earlier article posted in the Huffington Post.

Comet ISON will fly within 1.2 million miles from the sun's center on Nov. 28, 2013, astronomer Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, told the San Jose Mercury News.

If the comet makes it through the sun's heat, ISON could outshine the moon.

In September 2012 two amateur astronomers from Russia discovered the comet.

The Huffington Post says Comet ISON's path resembles that of a 1680 comet. And that comet's tail was reportedly visible during the daytime.

Marblehead has its share of night sky watchers, among them astronomer Jim Keating, a retired physics teacher at Marblehead High and the school's golf coach.

In Jim's night-sky-watching recommendations, at least for meteors, he suggests a dark place for viewing. 

"The best place to watch is anywhere the sky is dark, but remember there are no guarantees that you will see any," Jim told us. "So one should always have a chair, blanket, etc. to enable one to sit back, look up and enjoy the night sky and maybe be lucky enough to see a meteor."

If you are really lucky you will se a comet in the daytime.