Great Views of Hale Bopp from my apartment balcony in San Francisco last night (4/1). The cold front that passed through must have really cleared out the sky, as it was as dark as I can remember from here at 31st Avenue and Geary. Using Bill's limiting magnitude map of Gemini, I was able to peg the limiting mag at the zenith to 5.0.

The comet was striking and obvious. People are saying -0.8 or -0.7, but to my eyes it stands out as well as Sirius. The dust tail, which I was able to trace out to 5 degrees with no aid besides my specs, has taken on a noticeable curve in the last week. It appeared to come off the coma pointing almost due North, then curved gently back to west and down from my vantage point. The major jet coming off the coma seems to have straightened out- I wonder if both of these apparent changes are due to perspective as the comet sweeps around the Sun.

Despite winds gusting over 30 mph, I set up the 70mm refractor for a closer look. During brief episodes of calm I was again able to see three concentric shells about the coma. With the dust tail now curving out of the way the straighter ion tail is now more visible, though dim- I was able to follow it almost due north from the coma for about 2 degrees with the 70mm scope.

After following it for months, I am still awestruck at the sight of this comet every time I go out- to my eyes it is quite a bit more impressive than Hyakutake, showing up much more dramatically from undark skies and with substantially more interesting detail.