Comet C2002/X5

I've been struck by the fact that no one has started a string on the new observable comet....so here goes. I use The Sky to download positional data and estimated brightness. A few days ago I made the 5 am wake up to catch it as a morning object. It was to be slightly east of Vega. Unfortunately a bit of haze had moved in....no luck. New Year's Eve was a particularly clear day here North of Dallas so I gave it another try as an evening object.

I set up the 8" NexStar with a 32mm TV plossl. The Sky placed the comet in the FOV with a 3.6 mag star below Vega. I also just got a pair of Pentax V 16x60's. While several stars and doubles were great in the 16x60's and the 3.6 mag was clearly visible, no luck. I've not yet put together a viewing platform for the binoculars, but these are light enough to brace against a pillar and hand hold fairly satisfactorily. (Been quite pleased with them, although the FOV is narrow)

I finally spotted the comet with the SCT as a faint fuzzy. No tail was viewable. It was supposed to be 5-6 mag, I doubt it was 7 mag. The position was about 15 deg from the northwestern horizon, which didn't help any. I did check Uranus and Neptune for their clarity and they were excellent.

All in all, a disappointment. Has anyone been more successful?

Pete

Pete
Saw it this morning through 20X80's. No tail, probably one magnitude fainter than M13 to which I compared it. I looked two other mornings but ran into clouds/fog low in the east and couldn't see it. All in all about what I expected. Havent had the chance to put more aperture on it to see if tail can be detected.
Kim Colter
Washington MO