by Matt Tarlach
Got another look at LINEAR from a dark site this morning, 7/3/2000. This time (after missing the light show put on by the fireball/space junk Saturday night, during which I had my eye glued to the reticle eyepiece of my photo rig) I left the cameras at home and concentrated on visual observing and dark adaptation.
A friend and I scrutinized the comet at about 0330 PDT, just before the onset of twilight, and arrived independently at a tail length of 25' in the 12.5" newt at 70x. Others at the same site claimed 30' or even more, but I prefer to be conservative. The tail was also visible, faintly, in 8x42 binocs. Limiting mag at the site was about 6.3 at the zenith; in the vicinity of the comet probably less than 5.5.
This is becoming quite a show!