David K posts -
HB was bright but small, at it's best

Humm.. I wouldn't call a 30 degree tail exactly "small". The coma was at
least a degree in width and the tail was so bright that at least 10 degrees
of
it was visible with the full moon in the sky. HB also stayed around a lot
longer than Hyakutake did. Clear skies to you.


I have to note that a check of published observations of H-B indicate the
coma's diameter when the comet was at the peak of its display was about a
quarter degree (15') or somewhat less.

Likewise, there are very few reports of tail lengths approaching 30 degrees
(for the dust tail) for H-B. The average observer reported figures like 10-20
degrees for the main tail under good skies. I wouldn't argue that you might
have glimpsed a 30-degree tail but this was not anything like what was apparent
to most observers.

In fact, H-B's tails were unusually faint for an object with such a bright head
but perhaps not unexpectedly considering the comet's 1 AU perihelion distance.
For most of us this made the dust tail appear very weak in moonlight and I note
that at the March and April full moons, in very good skies, for me the main
tail was reduced to around 3 degrees with averted vision. This was rather
typical of what was reported at the time of these full moons by others as well.

As I indicated earlier, when a truly "classic" bright comet comes along again,
most of today's observers are going to be stunned by how spectacular such an
object can really be. Certainly a lot better than H-B was.

JBortle