01/14/2007 Comet of a Lifetime

Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught is being touted as the comet of the century. Certainly it is extremely bright, with today's estimates ranging between -5 and -6 magnitude. Sadly, it is also very close to the Sun from our viewpoint, so it's only visible in the daytime. Eventually it's going to better positioned for Southern observers, but the experts say that after today it will probably vanish forever for us Northern folks.
Which made me feel disappointed because I had not yet had a chance to view it. So, this afternoon, after reading of some success from others on the various e-mail reflectors, I decided to give it a try. At about 2:15 p.m., I got out my Celestron 6.5x44 binoculars, and positioned myself in the shadow of an old tv satellite dish on the roof of my house. After only a minute of searching, I found a very bright nucleus and even a small tail.
Given that this was a bright sunny day, and the fact that the Sun was only about 5 degrees away, I was quite amazed to be able to see it so clearly. Of course I was also very nervous because just a slight slip and I would be magnifying the extreme glare of the Sun directly into my eye, which would likely have caused irrepairable damage.
The Comet was to the East with the tail trailing away from the Sun. Although the conditions certainly were not very good for astronomical observing, I feel fortunate to have seen this shining interloper. I talked to my friend Dean at the time of the sighting and he also observed it from his backyard, and the reports from observers around the state were rolling in on the reflectors. I did try to take a snapshot with a digital camera but the sky lightness washed out any hope of capturing the Comet. I didn't feel like making much of an effort to catch it, as the eyeball view was sufficient to relieve my concern that the Comet of a Lifetime was going to swing right by without giving me a glimpse of it.