Part of the brightness will depend on how close Pan-STARRS gets to the sun.

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The Pan-Starrs telescope in Hawaii uses several gigapixel cameras, but it has a relatively narrow field of view.

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If you missed Pan-STARRS, there may be another comet-viewing opportunity later this year.

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"Although modest in size, this telescope is on the cutting edge of technology, " said Dr Nick Kaiser, head of the Pan-STARRS project.

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Adam Block, program coordinator at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center at the University of Arizona, snapped his first Pan-STARRS picture March 10.

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Pan-STARRS is expected to get fairly close to the sun.

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It's hard to predict exactly how bright Pan-STARRS will be, but you should be able to see it without binoculars or telescopes, said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program.

CNN: Welcome to the year of the comet (we hope)

Pan-STARRS also could fall apart and fizzle.

CNN: Welcome to the year of the comet (we hope)