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Got a clear evening, so took the opportunity to take a few shots of the comet with my DX6490.
Here's the best one:
Note the lack of a tail - this is for two reasons, firstly the outburst of activity was only a few days ago and the debris hasn't been strung out by the solar wind as yet.
Secondly, the Earth is almost directly between the comet and the Sun and since comet tails point away from the Sun any newly forming tail is effectively 'behind' the circular glow of the comet's head from our point of view.
Although it looks like you might imagine a comet would appear if it was headed straight for us, it isn't. It's about 2.5 AU from us and its orbit doesn't intersect ours.
To the naked eye, it's as bright as the stars in Cassiopeia and Perseus and looks like a bright fuzzy blob. Binoculars show it well.
Here's a finder chart if you'd like to have a go at spotting it (the chart's in the right hand margin of the page).
--
simon
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