HK may enjoy rare astronomical event: newspaper

Updated at 12.53pm:
Hong Kong might experience a rare astronomical event next month - when two visible comets appear together over the territory, the Sun newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Hong Kong Astronomical Society said its members had already spotted one of the comets near New Zealand.

The society said the best places to see the two comets would be southern Hong Kong Island and the southern beaches at Lantau Island.

The Sun quoted astronomers saying there were no previous records of two comets appearing together at the same time. Comets are usually notoriously unpredictable.

Comets Linear and Neat are bright comets visible to the naked eye. Both were likely to be on their first trip through the 'inner solar system'. They would probably leave a long trail in the sky, the astronomers said.

Comet Linear was spotted recently and Comet Neat was likely to surface in early-May. The two comets were expected to come together by the end of April.