Comet C/2007 N3 - or Lulin - would be most visible above the South African sky during the last week of February and the first week of March, the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa said on Friday.

Although a reasonable knowledge of astronomy and a dark sky were needed to find it, ASSA comet and meteor section director Tim Cooper said it could be followed with binoculars until the end of March.

On February 23, the comet would be 2.5 degrees south of Saturn. Four days later on 27 February it would be one degree south of Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo.

It was possible that the comet would be visible to the naked eye in rural areas, Cooper said.

There was uncertainty whether this was the comet's first trip into the inner solar system, because it was newly discovered and the length of its orbit had not been determined, he said.

According to the North American Space Association (Nasa) website, Lulin had swung by the Sun and was approaching Earth on a trajectory that would bring it within half the distance between the Earth and the Sun in late February.

"Comet Lulin's orbit indicates that this is likely the comet's first trip into the inner solar system," Nasa said.

The comet had two tails: "One tail pointing away from the Sun, and an anti-tail - dust that trails the comet in its orbit and may appear to point toward the sun."

Nasa said Lulin was discovered in photographs by Quanzhi Ye, a 19-year-old student at the Sun Yat-sen University in China.

Sapa