[John K]

Well after over 1 week of cloud, smoke and haze here in Melbourne the sky cleared for a glorious night.
Drove 45 mins west, out on a hill past Bacchus Marsh, with the comet being in a dark SW part of the sky well away from the glow of Gellong and Ballarat to an awsome sight.
After some early concerns about not finding it in binoculars, it ended up being precisely where it was suppost to be and finally found it in my 10 x 50's at 9.15pm. By 10pm it was a glorious sight! Holy cow! That tail was amazing! Up to 25 degrees, and we we could actually see to 2 parts to the tail, with the major part having large streaming vertical sections brighter than the LMC and milkyway. The front coma had a large triangular section pointing away from the coma at around 45 degrees.
Took about 70 photos with my new 400D and a mate's borrowed 100-300mm Sigma lens which I will process shortly!
Compared to Hyakytake I actually through that the comet was slightly brighter with more structure in the tail but with a far smaller coma. I cannot even imagine what this thing would be like if it got as close as Hyakytake! Awasome! and well worth waiting the last 9 days to see it! Hope that it stays bright when it becomes circumpolar.