Comet Siding Spring’s close approach to Mars: Watch it live, right here

A comet the size of a mountain is about to fly by Mars, and you can watch it live right here.

Comet Siding Spring's closest approach to the red planet will occur at 11:27 a.m. on Sunday.

At its closest approach, the comet will come within 87,000 miles of Mars. That's 10 times closer than any comet on record has ever come to Earth.

Sadly, this historic flyby is not visible to the naked eye. People who live in the Southern Hemisphere have a shot at seeing the comet if they have access to a good telescope six inches or wider.

However, most of us in the Northern Hemisphere will not be able to see the comet at all, experts say, no matter how big a telescope we've got.

Here to save the cometary day is astronomy website Slooh.com. Beginning at 11:15 a.m PDT on Sunday, it will host a live broadcast of the comet's closest approach to Mars, as seen by the website's telescopes in South Africa and in the Canary Islands. 

Later in the day, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PDT, Slooh will broadcast another view of the comet from a telescope in Chile. 

You can watch both shows in the video player below. Viewers are also invited to ask questions of astronomer's participating in the webcast on Twitter, using the hashtag #SloohComet.

Good luck, and happy comet watching!

Science rules! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.