Joined Breckland Astronomical Society and attended our first meeting this month. Very much enjoyed Prof Carolin Crawford's talk on 'Exo Planets' and received a friendly welcome from members. The snow stayed away long enough for us to get to and from Great Ellingham which is some hour away from our home by car.

The clouds parted on the thirteenth of March for us to see Comet PanStarrs very low over the marshes. The graveyard at our local church provides a great elevated and unobstructed view west over the Waveney River valley. At 6.15pm we set off for the churchyard with two friends. I fixed my camera on a tripod pointing towards the horizon where the sun had not long set. Between us we had two pairs of binoculars so we took it in turns to search the sky for the comet.

The crescent Moon was absolutely beautiful with earth-shine illuminating the rest of the disk. The 'dark-side' was so bright that the maria were clearly visible, I don't think I've ever seen earth-shine so bright. We picked up the comet for the first time at about 6.50pm using my 11x80mm binoculars and a little later in 10x50s. Finaly it became visible without optical aid. I managed to get a number of images using 18-55 and 90-300mm lenses. The focus could have been better - guess whose camera hasn't got 'live view' and who forgot to take his spectacles with him?

Anyway since the 13th the weather has been quite grim and there have been no further opportunities to view the comet or any other celestial treats for that matter.

Seeing the comet, however, really cheered me up. You can't beat a good comet.