After my announcement yesterday afternoon, many comet hunters gathered outside the Skybar. The sky was almost cloud-free at the right place, so the view of the comet was splendid. The comet was definitely brighter, at least -2.5 mag, and its tail much longer than the day before.
A visual observers' group was set up by G. Tomezzoli, using 10x42 and 20x60 binoculars. Another group formed around J. Marot-Lassauzaie and me, with a Nikon D100, a 550/6.3 Maksutov (see left-hand image) and a Meade ETX90 (1260/14, see right-hand image), also used visually at x48.
An Iridium flare in a tiny clearing and a brief tour of winter constellations completed this very successful comet & star party.

Forecast:
- comet brightness:
Jan. 10.92, -2.5*, & 1' (J. Bortle, Stormville, NY, U.S.A., naked eye, 1-degree tail);
10.68, -2.3*, -- (W. Hasubick, Buchloe, Germany, naked eye; comp. w/ Venus);
10.68, -3.2*, 2' (T. Scarmato, Calabria, Italy, 7x50 binoculars; alt. 5 deg; 2-deg tail);
10.66, -2.7:*, 5' (K. Hornoch, Krasensko, Czech Republic, 10x50 binoculars; 2-deg tail in p.a. 25 deg; very low, dusk);
Nobody knows about the possible evolution. I guess -4 mag and a 4-deg tail by the end of the week: look for the comet whenever a clearing comes at sunset.
- weather tonight: 95% cloud cover, stormy with 70 km/h wind gusts; please come to the Skybar on your own. Tomorrow: 100% cloud cover, rainy. Saturday: 50% cloud cover - maybe the comet's tail could still be visible.

Other information sources:
SpaceWeather, see below.
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1.htm (discovery of the comet)
http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html (now almost daily; the Jan 11 issue came out yesterday for us Europeans)
http://www.cidehom.com/astronomie.php?_a_id=363 (note hesitating spelling for the comet, and the repeated efforts of the photographer to sell his book)

Jean-Luc Dighaye