Clouds finally gone, got to see it monday morning, from a dark site.
Did some obs with large binos on tripods (we had three wicked tripods with two sets of 20x80's - tried out the triplet 20x80's yay - and my kunming 25x100's - would of been a good photo hehe) A1 had a faint half a degree tail in 100's. In 20x80's i got a pretty firm mag of 6.25. About 3 and a bit arc minutes in size, and i agree Ron very condensed GC looking head, not much outer coma. we thought we could see a green hue to head in the 100's.
Tried to be first to spot it, and report it, naked eye in the world - but too iffy to say - very small and hard to distinguish from nearby small star. Also caught a few centaurid candidates and some nice sporadics in the bargain earlier on.
i wouldnt be so sure it wont be nice for northerners RE - after all you get it after perihelion - thats the best time usually
Excellent session!