period in which it was visible to the naked eye. It was reported to have had an extremely long, extremely bright, prominent tail with a reddish colour, as well as a nucleus brighter than any star in the night sky. Ephorus also reported the comet to have split into two fragments: a larger fragment which is now thought to have returned in 1106 AD as another spectacular sungrazer, as well as another, much smaller fragment. It is currently thought to have been the giant comet which progressively shattered under the influence of the sun to form the entire family of Kreutz sungrazers. To account for all Kreutz sungrazers observed up to date, the giant comet must have had a nucleus exceeding 120 km in diameter. Great Comet of 1106 AD The Great Comet of 1106 AD was a gigantic comet noticed by observers from all over the world. On 2 February 1106 AD, a star was reported to have appeared next to the sun, about a degree from it. It seems to have diminished in brightness after this apparition, with a rather faint, unremarkable nucleus after perihelion, but its tail grew enormously and on February 7 Japanese observers said the extremely bright white tail stretched about 100 degrees across the night sky, which was also reported to have been branching into multiple tails. On February 9, it dimmed slightly, but its tail was still exceedingly bright, measuring 60 degrees long and 3 degrees across. The entire naked-eye duration of the giant comet has been recorded to be anywhere from 15 to 70 days in European texts, though. Recent evaluations, as well as observations of the comet splitting into multiple pieces after perihelion, have suggested that this comet was the progenitor of an entire subgroup of Kreutz sungrazers, including the extremely bright sungrazers of 1882, 1843 and 1965. Observations also suggest that the larger fragment of the Great Comet of 371 BC, which was observed splitting into two pieces, later returned as the Great Comet of 1106 AD. Great Comet of 1843 The Great Comet of 1843 was first noticed in early February of that year, just over three weeks before its perihelion passage. By February 27 it was easily visible in the daytime sky, and observers described seeing a tail 2–3° long stretching away from the Sun before being lost in the glare of the sky. After its perihelion passage,