CLOSE The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory says a comet may be visible as people welcome in 2017 on Saturday. If you miss it, don't worry! Several comets are expected to be visible throughout the year. 
 
 Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova in 2011. (Photo: NASA) 
 
 Apart from the traditional fireworks and illuminated ball in Times Square, look for a blazing comet to light the night sky on New Year’s Eve. 
 
 The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said a comet may be visible as people welcome in 2017 on Saturday. 
 
 “Say farewell to 2016 in cosmic style by looking up to see the #NewYearsEve #comet on December 31,” the laboratory said in a Wednesday Instagram post. 
 
 Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova will be near the moon on New Year's Eve, NASA said. 
 
 The comet, NASA said, was expected to appear in the western horizon on Dec. 15 and had a bluish-green head by Dec. 21. The comet is a periodic comet, which returns to the inner solar system about every 5 years. 
 
 Dr. David Reitzel, an astronomical lecturer at Griffith Observatory in California, said the comet is visible now using a telescope or strong binoculars. On Saturday, people should point their instruments to the west just after sunset to catch a glimpse of the comet, which will be just to the left of the crescent moon. For a good view, go somewhere away from residential lights. 
 
 It looks like 2017 may be a good year for comet spotting. NASA said people will be able to view several throughout the year. In fact, Reitzel said people can take a peek at Comet 45P when it's closer to Earth — about 7.5 million miles away — on Feb. 11. 
 
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 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2hwY6qE ||||| The video above – from Greg Hogan of Kathleen, Georgia – shows the fast movement over 28 minutes of green Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková – which swept closest to Earth on February 11, 2017, temporarily becoming the most famous comet that practically nobody saw. Its closest point was around 8 UTC on Saturday, at which time the comet was 0.08 AU (7.4 million miles, about 12 million km, or some 30 times the moon’s distance) from the Earth. Experienced observers and astrophotographers, used to finding faint objects in the sky, had a shot at seeing it, although they had to contend with this weekend’s bright moon. The estimated brightness of Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková at its closest and brightest was magnitude +7. That’s well outside the limit for visibility with the unaided eye. What’s more, a diffuse object, like a comet, is even tougher to see at that magnitude, or any magnitude. The comet is still around, but an extremely dark sky and optical aid (at least binoculars, probably a telescope) are needed to see it. 
 
 On the other hand, we are beginning to see a few photographs of Comet 45P, and we’re hoping we’ll see more in the days ahead. 
 
 Brian Ottum, who created the beautiful composite image above on February 7 with three 5-minute exposures and a 10-inch telescope, told EarthSky: 
 
 I’ve been taking shots of 45P for 2 months. Waited excitedly for it to emerge from the sun’s glow. Unfortunately, it seems to be fading. No naked eye comet here. 
 
 Abhinav Prakash Dubey in New Delhi, India caught the green comet on February 7, too. His image, below, gives you a better idea of how some faint comets look on the sky’s dome, but his image is a composite, too (5 frames, 2-mins each stacked in Photoshop). Notice how many stars are visible here; your eye doesn’t see this many. Still, it’s a gorgeous photo. The comet is the blurry spot, around 8 o’clock from center. 
 
 Chris Plonski in Charlotte, North Caroline wrote that he had: 
 
 … poor transparency and poor seeing, high altitude clouds swirling, gusting winds and a full moon. 
 
 But, still, Chris managed to catch 8 frames at ISO 3200 4-minute consecutive exposures (32 minutes total) showing the speed of the comet’s movement. 
 
 If you want to give the comet a try in the days ahead – especially if you’re a photographer or experienced skywatcher – we have some charts you can use, below, courtesy of Bob King aka AstroBob. The comet is in the sky before dawn, about 82 degrees west of the sun at maximum brightness. As you can see from the photos on this page, some people are catching it. But, as Bob King points out in his article at skyandtelescope.com: 
 
 Guess who’s back throwing unshielded light around with abandon? Yep! Starting Thursday (February 9), the waxing gibbous moon pushes into the morning sky and remains there as the comet whirls west and slowly fades. 
 
 The comet will be fading as it passes through the constellations Corona Borealis, Boötes, Canes Venatici, Ursa Major into Leo by the end of February. 
 
 This comet passed closest to the sun that binds it (and us) in orbit on December 31, 2016. It’ll soon recede back into the deeper space of our solar system, but it’ll always return, as least for the foreseeable future. Its orbital period is only 5.25 years. At its 2011 return near the sun, Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková made a slightly closer pass to Earth. Many observers saw it with binoculars that year. Maybe those 2011 observations are helping to prompt media attention this year, which is why so many people are asking. 
 
 By the way, we didn’t see very many astrophotos of the comet’s much-publicized sweep near the moon on New Year’s Eve, 2016. But at least one Japanese astrophotographer (@w_coast) got a gorgeous shot of the moon and comet on January 1, which he posted to Twitter (and a shout-out to @cosmos4u on Twitter for pointing it out). 
 
 Bottom line: Green Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková passed closest to Earth on February 11, 2017. It is not particularly close, and it’s not bright enough to see with the eye. It’s not even an easy object with binoculars. But astrophotographers might catch it! If you do, submit your image to EarthSky here.
– The night sky is providing a little extra festivity on New Year's Eve: a potential glimpse of a returning comet. USA Today has this explainer on how to see it: "People should point their instruments to the west just after sunset to catch a glimpse of the comet, which will be just to the left of the crescent moon." Yes, you'll need at least binoculars and ideally a telescope to spot Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, advises Earth & Sky. It adds that Venus will be a bright object around the same place, so beware of errant proclamations. (For that matter, you can look for the comet before and after New Year's Eve, the website notes.) Still, NASA casts things in an almost poetic perspective: "On New Year's Eve, the comet and the crescent moon will rendezvous to say farewell to 2016."