It's been ten weeks since my last observing session. Moving halfway across the country from Wisconsin to Arizona really cuts into a guy's observing time. However, today is my 35th birthday and a night under the stars seems the perfect gift. The drawing at left represents the view in my 10-inch Meade Starfinder equatorial Newtonian. The comet nucleus is positioned 1/4 degree west of a 6th magnitude star in Serpens Cauda. At 82X (Meade 13.8-mm SWA), the brighter portion of the coma appears one arc minute in diameter. Two bright spikes extend to the east from the nucleus. A third spike is visible with averted vision. The broad, fan-shaped tail extends east, remaining quite bright for 1/4 degree. The Anderson Mesa observing site, about 13 miles southeast of Flagstaff, is really dark and stars are clearly visible all the way to the horizon. I think I'm going to like observing in Arizona.