I've taken a few looks at it from my driveway, but at the just-concluded Deep South Regional Star Gaze (
Deep South Regional Star Gaze) I viewed it in its full glory. Right now, it reminds me very much of a illuminated frosted light bulb, except for the non-circular shape of the trailing edge. There was an apparent elongation of the nucleus a few days ago, and it's still visible to a degree. The shape is something akin to a half-circle and half-square put together, with the square side being slightly blurred, if that makes sense. There's currently no more tail than that, but it's definitely there.
As to seeing the comet from a dark sky, it helps but it's not necessary. Folks are seeing it from New Orleans' street corners, if that's any indication. To the unaided eye, it's a slightly fuzzy star in Perseus. In (even) binoculars, it's glorious. :thumbsup:
Just take a look at the NE sky a couple of hours or so after dark. If your NE horizon is reasonably low, you can look for the distinctive "inverted pentagon" of the constellation Auriga, then move up about 20 degrees or so from the brightest star in the pentagon, Capella. 20 degrees is roughly the distance from the tip of your thumb to little finger with an outstretched hand at arm's length. Take a look at the chart Shannon posted to see what I mean. I don't know what the scale at the bottom of the chart indicates, though. It's in the NE sky, which is between 0 and 90 degrees azimuth... ? Also, at this time of the year, the bowl of the Big Dipper is mostly below the treeline from the southern US.
Comet 17P/Holmes
Linear Mode
