Serious comet chasers have been watching Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) for some time. For awhile, it exceeded its predicted brightness but is back to cruising at normal. During the time this photograph was taken, Boattini was a southern hemisphere object... But not for long. Now its about to round the Sun and head north!

Comet Boattini
©Unknown
Comet Boattini


On November 20, 2007 the comet was spotted by Andrea Boattini during the course of the Mt. Lemmon survey in Arizona. Italian Boattini's interest is in near-Earth asteroids and he during his research has discovered and co-discovered no less than 170 mostly main-belt asteroids.

Since that time, Andrea has become involved with the Catalina and Mt. Lemmon program and has made several additional asteroid discoveries. Of these, object 2007 WD5, made headlines during its extremely close approach to Mars at the end of January 2008. Comet C/2007 W1 is Andrea Boattini's first comet discovery and we hope not the last!