For now, the comet is highest in the early morning hours before the beginning of dawn. On Friday night the 13th (early hours of the 14th UT) it’s at the Bootes/Hercules border, and skyglow from the nearly last-quarter Moon will be a factor.

In the next few days the Moon wanes and dims in the pre-dawn sky. By the night of the 17th the comet is fairly well up in the northeast as early as midnight or 1 a.m. and the Moon is no longer an issue. The comet is traveling north, and by January 26th it’s nicely up for the entire night as it cruises by the Little Dipper. It will pass Kochab on the North American night of the 27th and Polaris on the 29th and 30th.

The comet should be brightest, 5th magnitude, around the end of January and the beginning of February.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-january-13-21-2/

This description would have made perfect sense to the Ancients, who had no idea of what comets were, or that the complex motions perceived by the human eye could be derived from the geometrical relationships of two simple conic sections interacting. We know today about the orbits of earth and of comets, and the basic layout of the inner solar system; but to them this was just a crazy rogue creature prowling erratically amongst the stars. It must have been terrifying. What could this terrible apparition, disturbing the quiet order and serenity of the heavens, possibly mean?

Try to put yourself in the mind-set of those old sky watchers and re-read S&T’s terse description again. Try and re-catch the wonder.

https://static.abc.es/media/ciencia/2017/09/08/tapizbayeux-kAsF–1240×698@abc.jpg