Grise Fiord (Jan 15/07) - The best show in Nunavut wasn't on television last week, it was in the skies.

Comet McNaught hung in the heavens for several days last week and left Qutsikturmiut captivated.

Comet McNaught streaks through the Arctic sky above Grise Fiord. The high Arctic was the ideal vantage point for viewing the comet last week. - photo courtesy of Imooshie Nutaraqqjuk

"Even little kids are very excited about it," said Jimmie Qaapik of Grise Fiord, who was one of several high Arctic residents to photograph the comet.

The comet appears to hang in the sky, and has the telltale tail that is the calling card of comets.

It appeared to be headed southward, he said. The sighting brought back memories of Haley's Comet's last visit in 1986, Qaapik said.

"Haley's Comet was more bright bluish colour, and this one is very bright, a more yellowish colour," he said.

According to the astronomical Web site Space.com, Comet McNaught was discovered Aug. 7 by Australian Robert McNaught, who predicted the object would become very bright in the sky around last week.

Estimates that Comet McNaught is 40 times brighter than Venus have amateur and professional astronomers alike buzzing.

Mary Ellen Thomas, executive of the Nunavut Research Institute in Iqaluit, said the comet is visible as far south as Kansas.

The best times for viewing are at daybreak and dusk.

Folks in Iqaluit might want to head to the edge of town to view Comet McNaught in order to get away from the city's lights, Thomas said.

"There are always a lot of interesting things to see (in the night sky) where there's not a lot of light pollution," she said.

The Space.com article predicted Comet McNaught will come within 25.4 million kilometres of the sun. That's half the distance of the planet Mercury from the sun.

Space.com said the comet passed through the field of view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft that orbits the sun, giving scientists a chance to view the comet close-up.

"People were looking at this for several hours here," said Niore Iqalukjuak in an e-mail. Some, he said, even phoned the office of MLA Levi Barnabas to report the comet.

Qaapik said hunters in Grise Fiord first spotted the comet Jan. 6.

"They thought it was something falling but it stayed up there," he said, chuckling.