like many others I have enjoyed this comet far FAR more than I thought.
I have to rate is as being only just (fractional by a proton width) in second place to the 2002 Eclipse for me.
so my sky life time ratings stand at present:
1. 2002 eclipse and totality. ( god spoke to me and said, get a bigger Scope... and I listened in that darkness that fell around me..
2. comet McNaught, it has been grand and a view that has had my six year old telling his friends everything from how the tail works, to how we going to build a rocket to save the world from it next time round...
3. Mercury transit of 2003. Made me feel small in the universe when that little dot crawled across an angry Sol.
4. watching a metor shower of close to 120 per hour in the middle of the Karoo desert (Africa) back in November 2004. It made the opening attack of War of The Worlds, real to us...
5. my first view of Saturn and all it's rings clear and focused when I got my 6 inch refractor back in ealry 2001. The day I got my astronomy drivers licence and since then the sky has never been safe..
( ps I never got Halleys Comet, just McNaught has eclipsed it by a mile)
and what am I waiting for????, well now it's going to have be my vote for the local Supernova, that is daylight visible... the big daddy bang in our back yard!!! It will need to be super event to get into that top five list..
Ziggy Stardust.