Comet Pons-Brooks Visual Report

[sdbodin]

Evening of 26 March, 9pm local (PDT), visible in 11x70 binos north of Hamal. Dim, not picked-up naked eye, coma diffuse no bright point nucleus, just a gradual brightening, tail diffuse and maybe half degree long. Not impressed, seems like a lot of hype for a nothing burger.

Seemed to be brighter on the 15th when I imaged it. View in binos then seemed to define a more distinct tail also.

Clear skies,
Steve

[Bigzmey]

Nice catch Steve. My weather has been terrible, but I should try to step out with binos.

[broadwater]

Thanks for the report, Steve. I have a clear forecast for tonight and was really expecting a great show through my 15x70 binoculars. I appreciate your helping reset my expectations. I liked your comment: "Not impressed, seems like a lot of hype for a nothing burger."

IMHO, amateur astronomy suffers from alot of these overly-hyped objects and events, and it turns off many of people who are moderately interested in our hobby. Those of us who are users in forums like this are diehards who are going to observe the night sky no matter what. But the occasionally interested person who reads these hyped headlines like "magnificent comet" or "spectacular meteor shower tonight" and see nothing impressive become turned off to astronomy. It's the Boy Who Cried Wolf Syndrome.

Of course, our brightening skies thanks to light pollution are not helping either, but people need to take this sad reality into account before they start making declarations about how amazing a future comet or meteor shower will be.