Thanks Joe, Looks like the next prime viewing time frame for 9:00pm transits of the comet will begin on Jan. 3 through Jan. 13. This corresponds with the comet's predicated maximum brightness on Jan. 6 through Jan. 12. The following is a Moon blocking chart that I prepared for Machholz through February 3, 2005: Moon and Comet C/2004Q2 (Machholz) http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Moonto2_... Some of finder charts referenced in my earlier post were misnamed as C2004Q4, instead of C2004Q2. The following corrects links to the courtesy finder charts for Comet C/2004 Q2(Machholz): Overview 70 deg finder to 1/10/2005 with Moon phase and transit notes http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q270degTo1... 25 deg finder with Lep orientation - good through 12/23/2004 Stars to mag 10 http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Lepv10to... 25 deg finder with Eri orientation - good through 12/27/2004 Stars to mag 10 http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Eriv10to... It looks like I botched my measurement with the reticule eyepiece - which has a 12mm and not 9mm focal length. I redid the measurement at 20041219 8:30UTC and will repost after I redo the math on the angular size. I'm just reworking what I saw on the bright core through the 12mm - 90x lens. The visual estimate of the 1/2 brightness coma at 10.5 arcmins in the 40mm lens at 28x is good. For you high-end scope users out there, you really need more than 6" of aperature to see any detail at 90x. The image is too dim with 6" of aperature. - Kurt __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com