Comet Garradd is continuing to be the primary comet for observers of the northern hemisphere for the spring season of 2012! Currently, the comet is moving southward across the western region of Ursa Major 'The Big Bear home to the famous stellar asterism known as 'The Big Dipper'. The comet is heading out of the domain of the terrestrial planets and longs to return to the Outer Solar System on a destination to the frigid realms of the Kuiper Belt. During this time and for the rest of April the comet will continue past the last pair of stars known for the triple set 'the leaps of the Gazelle'. These stars represent the toes of the great bear and appear as the foot prints of a gazelle escaping from 'the Hunting Dogs' known as the constellation of Canes Venatici which resides to the east of Ursa Major and appear to be chasing both the big bear and the gazelle! Three leaps are known by the following pairs: Alula stars ('first leap' in Arabic), Tania stars('second leap' in Arabic), and the Talitha stars ('third leap' in Arabic); for each pair there is a Borealis and Australis. An example would be the 'third leap' where we have Talitha Borealis and Talitha Australis. Comet Garradd will continue past the Talitha stellar pair around mid - April and continue southward into the eastern tail of Lynx 'the wild feline for the rest of April!

The latest observations place C/2009 P1 Garradd at 7th magnitude with only the dust tail faintly visible to binoculars in very dark skies! Garradd will only get fainter and move further towards the western horizon as it fades to 14th magnitude and be completely lost in the daytime glare before the end of June. As for other hopeful targets to look for in the near future, a promising 96P/Machholz 1 expected to reach 7th magnitude by the month of July and continue to remain visible thru the month of August while residing close to Virgo at dusk while low in the western skies. The other possible target is a product of the PanSTARRS survey from Hawaii; C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS expected to be the 'the Great Comet of 2013 with a predicted brightness of magnitude 0 when the comet reaches a perihelion of only 0.3 AU during the early days of mid - March 2013. However, the present orbital elements for this comet will have it lost completely in the daytime glare during the time when it reaches both perigee and perihelion with it appearing again in the morning skies before dusk, but fainter than 9th magnitude! These predicted events can change especially in the case for C/2011 L4, so come back for further details and any new updates especially for unexpected discoveries and unforeseen outbursts!