Comet Machholtz, unusal?

Hi:

Dec.30/31, 2004 - 2345 UT. 12cm, f/8.3, 100cm fl refractor
at 40x and 67x. Observed from balcony in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
Yep, there was light pollution! Seeing was good say 4/5. Sky
a tad bright limiting mag about 4.5.

First saw comet at 5:45pm in my 10x50 binoculars. Ok,the comet's nucleus at 40x
looked like it had a "shell" around the main point. Say similar to a Airy Disk.
I could see it at 67x and it was faint. I used averted vision
also.

Anyone else see this "effect".

I also split a few doubles in Orion at 213x and Saturn looked nice! I also found
M1 at 40x.

Mike