Why Observe Comets?: -- Of history, superstition, magic, and science -- Comet science progresses -- Discovering comets -- Comet searching begins -- Tails and trails -- Comet searching in the twentieth century -- How I search for comets -- Searching for comets photographically -- Searching for comets with CCDs -- Comet hunting by reading -- Hunting for sungrazers over the Internet -- What to do when you think you've found a comet -- A New Way of Looking at Comets -- When comets hit planets -- The future of visual comet hunting -- How to observe comets -- An introduction to comet hunting -- Visual observing of comets -- Estimating the magnitude of a comet -- Taking a picture of a comet -- Measuring where a comet is in the sky -- My passion for comets.