I had been plagued by bad weather the entire last week. Therefore,
I had not seen this comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) until a few hours
ago. This morning, while having breakfast, I looked out from my
kitchen window and I immediately spotted a star with about 1° tail
towards "half past ten"! Of my 107 observed comets, it has never
before occurred that my naked eyes have been my
discovery "instrument"! Comet McNaught looked about a half a
magnitude fainter than Jupiter but when taking into account the
lower altitude of the comet and the brighter background, I would
estimate the comet's brightness as magnitude -2.0 or a little
brighter.

I lost both Jupiter and the comet from naked eye sight when the
solar altitude was -2°. I continued to follow comet McNaught until
8:50 am local time with my 10x50 binoculars when I saw the rising
sun! This was my second daylight comet. The first was Hale-Bopp
which I followed with my C-8 telescope until after sunrise one
morning. Comet McNaught seemed to be much easier with 10x50
binoculars, so McNaught is much brighter than Hale-Bopp at its
brightest. I never saw comet West because I was not an observing
amateur by then so I can't compare McNaught to it. Hale-Bopp and
Hyakutake were prettier due their locations in a dark sky and with
their complex and long tails. McNaught was so cute with its naked
eye tail in the bright twilight.

/Timo Karhula (Sweden, latitude 60 N)