McNaught lights up Taurus

A bright green comet head glows near the top of a star-filled frame, streaming a long, faint white tail that stretches diagonally down almost the full height of the image. Wisps of dim brown dust clouds drift across the dark background, with a vivid blue-white star near the upper left.

Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia

Comet 220P/McNaught, a Jupiter-family comet on a 5.5-year orbit, appears in Taurus about five weeks after it exploded in brightness in a Aug. 5, 2026 outburst, becoming 600 times brighter at magnitude 7. The imager took 51 minutes of exposure in LRGB filters with a 12-inch f/3.6 astrograph on Sept. 10, 2026, after the comet had faded to magnitude 12.