Observing Comets with the Unaided Eye and Binoculars

The most spectacular comets are those which are visible to the unaided eye. The purpose of this Chapter is to describe the types of comet observations which one can do with the unaided eye or with binoculars. First, a description of the human eye and its capabilities is presented. This is followed by an overview of binoculars. Finally, I discuss techniques for observing comets and recording information, such as coma brightness, the degree of condensation (DC) and estimating atmospheric transparency.