Comet was quite easily seen from the middle of Canberra tonight (over the Woden town centre lights) with about 22 degrees of main tail perceivable to the naked eye with averted vision, and over ten degrees easy to see. To the south of and below Alpha and Beta Gruis, with the tail extending up past Alpha Tucanae, towards Achernar. Nucleus was a bit south of due SW at 9.45pm, at an altitude a bit less than 10 degrees.
Really clear skies for once, but the moon didn't help and will be getting worse.
While wandering up into the bush tonight (in the Red Hill nature resreve) near where I live, I came across two people standing in the half-moonlight trying to see the comet. It turned out there was a tree between them and the comet. I directed them a few metres to the left and they saw it easily. Today's good deed
And the road up to the lookout on Red Hil has become a traffic nightmare. Bumper to bumper traffic all the way up and back down. There must have been several hundred people trying to view it up there tonight. Yesterday was just as bad.
This comet has really captured the public interest.
DN