Sir, - There is undoubtedly a growing public interest in astronomical events. Media coverage of the recent comet, the eclipse of the moon, and the discoveries made by the Hubble space telescope have helped raise the general level of awareness of the night sky.
It must be said, however that some media coverage of comet Hyakutake (C/1966 B2) did encourage extravagant expectations as to its likely visual impact. The visibility of a comet is not comparable with a star of nominally equal brightness or "magnitude". Even the brightest comets would show little of their structure or tail in light polluted skies. Because of the emphasis on the nominal great brightness of comet Hyakutake, there is little doubt that many people have mistaken the planet Venus for the comet. Venus is still resplendent in the evening sky, but experienced observers in this country knew there was little chance of seeing the comet during the last weekend in April.
Those who have come to observational astronomy recently will enjoy taking their interest further. A useful start might be to obtain a copy of Sky High 1996 which covers many accessible phenomena.
Yours, etc.,
Director of Observations,
Irish Astronomical Society
PO Box 2547
Dublin 11.