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Some further good points there Steve regarding the fainter end of the tail. I have always considered the portion of Milkyway in Ara/Norma as being bright. At this time of year it can be a 'phantom auroral ray,' for those of us sucked in by it.
On two successive mornings now I have seen the view shown in your picture. It is often hard to compare one diffuse object with another because of the varying angular sizes and the unequal light distribution. Clearly though the end of the tail is far brighter than the nearby Milkyway in Ara.
On March 25th 1996 I photographed the tail of Hyakutake extending up above the horizon for nearly 40 degrees, whilst the head remained 16 degrees below my horizon at best. The light of the majority of the Hyakutake tail visible to me on that night was still not as bright as the section of Milkyway that spurs off from Aquila west of Scutum.
Overall we may say that the coma is very faint, but even the end of the tail is possibly brighter than the LMC. The first ten degrees of tail though are very bright and visible from urban locations.
This is a great story unfolding and we are in the box seats for sure (once again, everything is as it should be).
Cheers
Coops
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