Editing Comet Hyakutake (section)

== Discovery ==
The comet was discovered on 30 January 1996,{{r|IAUC_6299}} by [[Yuji Hyakutake]], an [[amateur]] [[astronomer]] from southern Japan.{{r|Baalke_1996}} He had been searching for comets for years and had moved to [[Kagoshima Prefecture]] partly for the dark skies in nearby rural areas. He was using a powerful set of [[binoculars]] with {{cvt|150|mm|0}} [[objective lens]]es to scan the skies on the night of the discovery.{{r|Aguirre_1996}}

This comet was actually the second Comet Hyakutake; Hyakutake had discovered comet [[C/1995 Y1]] several weeks earlier.{{r|Tenmon_1996}} While re-observing his first comet (which never became visible to the [[naked eye]]) and the surrounding patch of sky, Hyakutake was surprised to find another comet in almost the same position as the first had been. Hardly believing a second discovery so soon after the first, Hyakutake reported his observation to the [[National Astronomical Observatory of Japan]] the following morning.{{r|Hyakutake_1996}} Later that day, the discovery was confirmed by independent observations.{{r|IAUC_6303}}

At the time of its discovery, the comet was shining at [[apparent magnitude|magnitude]] 11.0 and had a coma approximately 2.5&nbsp;[[arcminute]]s across. It was approximately 2&nbsp;[[astronomical unit]]s (AU) from the [[Sun]].{{r|harvard1}} Later, a [[precovery]] image of the comet was found on a photograph taken on January 1, when the comet was about 2.4&nbsp;AU from the Sun and had a magnitude of 13.3.{{r|James_1998}}