Photo courtesy of NASA/MSFC/Jacobs Technology/ESSSA/Aaron Kingery

Standing outside in twenty degree weather may not seem appealing…ever…at any time…but a green comet will be visible in our sky around 8 p.m. tonight, so put on those long down coats, space nerds.

Actually, Comet Lovejoy has been traveling relatively close to the Earth since at least August 2014, when its namesake, Australian astronomer Terry Lovejoy (and not Reverend Lovejoy) first spotted it. In fact, the photo above was snapped in late November.

However, this green comet with a blue tail made its closest path to the earth last week and Capital Weather Gang notes that there will be another chance to see it tonight when the cloud cover breaks in the 8 o’clock hour.

For those with charts and maps handy, look to the right of Orion and below Taurus and use some high-powered binoculars. It might also help to truck out to the suburbs, as D.C.’s light pollution might keep it invisible. Astronomers that CWG spoke to all the way out in Mt. Vernon even had trouble seeing the tail.

There might be another chance to see the comet on Thursday night and its closest pass to the sun will be on January 30th. However, the comet won’t return to this solar system again for another 8,000 years. Awesome celestial bodies couldn’t make their way to this hemisphere in May, apparently, so bundle up.