I tried to find this comet a few nights back with my 8 inch f5 Newt but was unsuccessful. Last night, before I went to bed it was warm but relatively clear so I tried with the aid of a star finder chart, to locate it with my 7 x 50 binos.
I had established that if I used the distance between M45 and Rigel to visualise the side of an equilateral triangle, the apex would be close to where Comet Wirtanen would be. So I scanned the area and managed to see a faint smudge that could have been a galaxy or the comet. Well?
Well I ran inside, grabbed my camera and tripod, chucked on the old Pentax 135mm lens and aimed it at the blob. There it was! I felt very satisfied with my detective work and snapped 14 x 4 sec shots, 3200iso @ f3.5, with the Canon 550d. No guiding, no tracking, no flats, just a fixed camera on a Manfrotto tripod. How simple is that!
Petty happy too, that you can see some colour from a very light polluted Melbourne sky.