by Jay Reynolds Freeman
... am I correct in saying that the comet and tail have been viewed with binoculars?
S4 Linear was easy with 10x50 binoculars at about 10:30 PM PDT 22 July 2000, from Henry Coe State Park near Morgan Hill, California -- a site which had pretty good transparency, but with the substantial light dome of greater San Jose, California, to the northwest, where the comet lay.
This was the site of a major star party; probably twenty telescopes were pointed at S4 Linear at that time. After a quick peek through an 18-inch Dobson at 92x -- S4 Linear really does "look like a comet" -- I picked up a sky chart downloaded from Sky & Telescope's web site and decided to find it myself. It was obvious in my 10x50 at a glance, light pollution notwithstanding. I am sure a smaller binocular would have showed it, even against similarly bright background sky. I estimated tail length at 0.5 to 1.0 degree; I did not pay much attention to tail length since the sky was so unfavorable for seeing faint extensions thereof. I did not see separate dust and ion tails.