Had my first observation of Comet Hyakutake tonight at about 0810 UT, which is 0010 PST, on 14 March 1996. I was working late, and on heading out to my car, decided to dig out the 7x35 Tasco binocular ($29.95 at Sears) that I keep under the front seat for casual nature observation. The sky in Palo Alto (California) was a trace hazy and well lit by the cities below, and the comet was only about 20 degrees up, and the parking lot lights themselves made things bright enough to read a paperback easily -- I estimate the visual limiting magnitude in Libra to have been about 3.5. Yet without bothering to go back inside to get the finder chart from Sky and Telescope, it only took about 10 seconds of scanning to locate the very obvious comet, showing elongation distributed appropriately to call it a short tail. I estimated its visual magnitude as about 4.5 (to the nearest 0.5 magnitude, and I am not experienced at magnitude estimates) by out of focus comparison with nearby alpha and mu Librae.

Then I went home -- still in Palo Alto, only 2 Km away, but with no street lights illuminating my back yard -- and got a naked-eye sighting.