2021a1 20211211 0524 ndj

I got up at 4:30am and headed to a nearby spot east of Chelmsford which has a clear east horizon and reasonably dark skies. When I left cloud was moving in slowly from the west. It was already past overhead and it covered the comet around 05:40. The sky between the edge of the cloud and the horizon was hazy. The 200mm FL stacked image shows a tail of around 2 deg but the comet was low and so this would have been considerably longer if it had been higher in the sky.

I saw the comet in 10x50s but just as a faint fuzz. No tail. Even though it wasn't that impressive I'm pleased I made the effort since that is it now for me. More southerly observers will be able to follow it now.

Comphot gives a total magnitude of 5.5 from the 200mm FL image which is probably an underestimate given how low down the comet was.