(UPDATED*)Eyes to the skies. Pan-STARRS soon to rise above Northern Hemisphere’s horizon. (A larger one is on the way.)

A trickle of news from last year is picking up as the first of this year's two upcoming naked-eye comets – called Pan-STARRS and entering Northern Hemisphere after already giving the bottom half of the world a treat – rounds the sun. Another named ISON  is still something only for well-aimed telescopes but could be a true dazzler in November.

   Considering that both got some coverage last year (see earlier post) it was a suprise to find one long and well-crafted story on Pan-STARRS didn't even mention its larger cousin expected in eight months.

Story with just one comet:

• Space.com via Huff Post Science – Joe Rao: Comet Pan-STARRS To Speed By Sun On March 10, 2013 ; (Note: This is, again, on Huff Post's Science feed. As such, following account comes from seeing this story in isolation.) First thing that makes one wonder: The hed includes the year. Why? If it were NOT this year such exactness'd make sense. Otherwise, it is a waste of ink and pixels. The writer by the way is a Hayden Planetarium instructor, a science writer, and a TV weathercaster. The story's tagline asks readers to send their amazing photos to space.com M.E. Tariq Malik. Enterprising, that. Given the expertise and ambition behind this extensively-detailed story leaves one extra surprised at no mention of the brighter prospect ISON later this year – even if Space.com has covered that a lot already. Rao has, one must add, written previously on the both of them. At Huff Post is appended a video noting Pan-STARR and ISON's pending possible spectacularity.
• other SPACE.COM comet stuff at it's own site includes a good video "How to Spot Comet Pan-STARRS in March 2013" that appears to have been archived awhile, Comet Pan-STARRS in Night Sky Explained (Infographic);

And those with two comets:

• Reuters – Irene Klotz: Comet Pan-STARRS dresses up night skies ; The lede: "The first of two comets heading toward the sun this year made its closest approach to the sun today and will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere beginning on Thursday." No flash and dazzle needed, just the facts. Klotz also is appropriately cautious about ISON's promise – it could be a fabulous thing, brightening the sky as much as a full moon. Or it may fade or fall apart on close solar approach. We'll see in November.
• NewScientist – Lisa Grossman: Naked-eye comet offers glimpse of solar system's edge ; A shorty, but the hed prompts my brain to recall a conniption fit, two of them actually, last year. Coverage of the entry of the spacecraft Voyager  to near the edge of the realm of solar wind domination, with the interstellar medium beyond, led many reporters to say that probe is at the edge of the solar system. Not even close! The Oort cloud is far beyond any human spacecraft yet (see earlier post here). But these comets are visitors from the distant Oort cloud, which really does extend out to near the edge of the sun's family of orbiting objects. Sso this headline works just fine. A quick search confirms a sneaking suspicion: Ms. Grossman has tried to have it both ways, writing in December 2011 that the Voyager is "slowly approaching the outer limit of the solar system. No, you cannot have it both ways.
• Houston Chronicle – Eric Berger: Comet PANSTARRS to be visible in nighttime sky later this month ; TErrific pics with this 'SciGuy' blog, with the story not much more than an extended caption.
• Maui News – Chris Sugidono: Telescope not necessary for viewing comet ; In Maui this comet is local news. Sugidono explains that a telescope on Mt. Haleakala is why it is called Pan-STARRS. More important, here one reads that this comet is coming by the inner solar system exactly once, ever, and not because it's going to hit the sun. It is, it says here, getting a little extra kick from gravitationaly interaction with the planets, presumably mostly Jupiter, that will alter the orbit. It's barely parabolic coming in, dropping from the distant Oort cloud, but will be nudged to hyperbolic on its exit. It will leave the sun's gravitational embrace entirely. Aloha really does mean hello and goodbye, Pan-STARRS.
• NBCnews.com – Alan Boyle: Comet Pan-STARRS warms up fo0r celestial double feature's first show ; Well-selected pictures and Boyle's usual savvy, learned way with the solar system.

*Late Additions:

• AP – Marcia Dunn: Comet Making Closest Approach Ever of Earth: Good head, even though I don't think "approach of" is easily made out as transitive to the thing being approached. More important is that rather than doting on the spectacle the comet may provide for casual sky watchers, Dunn makes more of this comet's distinctive history. It is now on its first plunge from the Oort cloud. It presumably first agglomerated beyond the ice zone border where giant gassy and ice-rich planets, and comets, can condense. Ergo, it came into being pretty far out, got somehow tossed way to tarnatiion and gone to the outer limits of Old Sol's realm, and now has found itself deflected almost straight back down where we can watch it billow and wreath and it zips through. Dunn writes that it "originated" in the Oort cloud, but one thinks that the dominant hyypothesis has the Oort cloud populated by comets born closer than that, but heaved farther heavenward by close encounters with large planets. And to Mr., or Ms.?, Sugidono at the Maui News goes solo kudos for having (if it's true) that this new visit to the planetary neighborhood should send it totally gone after it leaves us.

And one with two comets – but not exactly the ones you'd guess

• Space.com – Nina Sen: Wow! Rare Photos Capture 2 Comets Together in Night Sky ; One of which is not a naked-eye comet as are Pan-STARRS and ISON in the glory presumed for it later this year. It is Lemmon, a distant faint one that some Southern Hemisphere observers caught with Pan-STARRS in one frame.