Based on the brightness estimates from early this morning, reported here on
comets-ml, it would tentatively seem that comet 2011 W3 is currently only
slightly fainter than was Comet Ikeya-Seki at about the same interval post-T and
holding its newfound intrinsic brightness. If this is anywhere near correct and
that the tail development evident from spacecraft images is at least fairly
respresentative of what might be seen visually, then observers should begin
seriously searching for the comet's bright tail projecting up out of the morning
twilight beginning at dawn tomorrow.

The tails of some of the major sungrazing comets have been extraordinarily
bright. So much so, in fact, that even their exact terminus, usually a vague and
extremely ill-defined feature for more typical bright comets, can be clearly
evident to the unaided eye. In the case of the Great March Comet of 1843, the
Great September Comet of 1882 and 1965's Comet Ikeya-Seki, the tails appeared
rather like segments of a bright searchlight beam, so high in their surface
brightness that their total length was distincly obvious to most observers.

Comet Lovejoy's apparition has been so bizarre up to this point that it is truly
difficult to anticipate just what might happen next. Even more hazardous would
be to attempt to accurately predict the exact sort of tail it will unfurl in the
morning sky. However...in my opinion the potention is there for something quite
unusual, perhaps even extraordinary, to present itself, particularly by virtue
of the current geometry between the comet and Earth, as it presents the most
favorable circumatances possible for observing the tail of a Kreutz sungrazing
group comet.

I personally await with great anticipation the first reports of Comet Lovejoy's
tail as the comet exits the twilight and begins to traverse the morning skies of
the Southern Hemisphere. Please...be complete, accurate and as detailed as
possible in describing what you see, the coming event may prove historic.

J.Bortle