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Observation: Comet 1998 J1 (SOHO)

Title:	Comet 1998 J1 (SOHO)
Date:	1998-06-02 NZST
Time:	18.36 NZST
Location:	96 Mornington Road, Dunedin
Equipment:	33 cm Newtonian, 7x50 binoculars

Description

Observed comet 1998 J1 (SOHO).
Found comet at 6h 35m, -17° 16' approximately.
Easily visible in 7x50 and finder.
Coma easy in 33cm, tail easy using averted vision.
Nucleus seemed more condensed, coma more cirular than previous.
Tail was a bit easier than previous but still faint compared with head.

Thoughts

Comets are always worth observing, even though its been a while since we had a really spectacular one. I have a look fairly frequently because its interesting to watch how the comet changes during its journey around the Sun. Sometimes something really unusual might happen, like extra tails forming, fragments breaking off, etc.