In response to Lowell Herr's question about the comet, I saw it
a couple of days ago from my brother's front yard in Brockton, Mass,
near Boston. It was low in the sky, and the sky was so bright from city
lights that no stars were visible to the naked eye. Yet the comet
was easy to find below and between Arcturus and Spica. I used a pair
of 8x56 binoculars. Back here at Frostburg (MD), where the skies are
darker, our planetarium director says he has seen the comet with
binoculars having only a 25 mm aperture. I hope the weather clears
here this weekend so I can look for it from my own yard. Our local
astronomy club is also going to host some comet-viewing evenings
starting next week.
Steve Luzader
Frostburg State University
sluzader@fre.fsu.umd.edu