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Finally saw it tonight as well. Iceman, Icemanswife, Icemansoffspring, Rodstar and Rodstarsoffspring went down to the Entrance and saw Comet McNaught as a very bright object 15-20 degrees above the horizon (there being distant hills occupying 5 degrees of that).
At first we had major cloud issues.....but that all dissipated quickly and the views were spectacular. Mike had his camera and large binos. I brought my ED80, which gave some nice views with the 22mm Panoptic, a very clear 45 degree tail. The core appeared very bright.
In all the comet was visible to us for less than 30 minutes. As it moved nearer to the horizon (and as the sky became darker), the tail appeared slightly more pronounced.
The background sky was still very dusky. I find it hard to imagine just how bright this comet would be under a dark sky, quite astonishing really.
It was nice to have some interest from others milling around. Mike helped a few people find it in the sky, and I had the opportunity to show a few people through the scope. The kids liked it too, although it is always hard to keep their interest for too long!
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