Comet PanSTARRS

Last week Betsy and I had some great views of Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4).  It was just barely visible with the naked eye, and was an easy object with binoculars.  We also had nice views of it with our spotting scope.  I found the following picture on the web that shows pretty much what it looked like in our binoculars on March 12, just to the left of the crescent Moon.  Notice the nice tail pointing away from the Sun.

Comet PanSTARRS, as it appeared in the western sky on March 12, 2013.

As we viewed the comet one evening a couple drove up and asked what we were looking at.  We told them the comet, and they asked if we could show it to them.  They had gone out that evening specifically to look for the comet, but hadn't seen it yet.  We were happy to point it out in the sky and show it to them in the spotting scope as well.

The next comet to be coming our way is Comet Ison, sometime around Thanksgiving, 2013.  It may put one a good show, too.