Comet McNaught Obs.

I woke up to a partly cloudy sky this morning; but it was clear to the
east! Every few minutes I went out and scanned the eastern horizon
for Comet NcNaught. Finally, just before 7am, in bright twilight, the
comet was sighted!

The head of the comet was non-stellar, but bright -- perhaps in the
neighborhood of 1st magnitude, maybe brighter.

After catching the comet in the small binoculars I switched to a pair
of hand-held 20x80s. There appeared to be two tails. The longer
extended northward (to the upper left) and was estimated to be
approximately 10 arc minutes in length. the shorter tail extended
almost vertically.

The only noticeable difference between the two binocular views was the
image scale.

By the time I thought about looking with the unaided-eye, the morning
twilight was too bright.

I've uploaded a sketch to my blog.
--
Bill
Celestial Journeys
http://cejour.blogspot.com

W. H. Greer wrote:
I woke up to a partly cloudy sky this morning; but it was clear to the
east! Every few minutes I went out and scanned the eastern horizon
for Comet NcNaught. Finally, just before 7am, in bright twilight, the
comet was sighted!

Congratulations. I would be interested to know from what latitude you
made your observation.

On 5 Jan 2007 15:17:16 -0800, wrote:

Congratulations. I would be interested to know from what latitude you
made your observation.

The observation was made from a latitude between 45 and 46 degrees
North.
--
Bill
Celestial Journeys
http://cejour.blogspot.com