Oops, I forgot to put here a report of Mar.27, so here it is now together with another observation of May.02.
Unfortunately I had very little time for comets this spring, so these 2 observations are the only I have. Had also a few unsuccessful attempts for 81P recently.
I am very glad to see this comet moving towards the Northern pole!
March 26/27 - observed from 04:00 till 04:24 (UT+2)
2010 Mar.27.10 UT: m1=7.9, dia.=&6', DC=2/?, no tail, 20x90B
[naut. twilight beginning, good transparency, Bortle class 5/6]
Altitude 46°. ML=11.4m
Comet was nicely placed in Sagitta within Milky Way, though I have found it enough easily. Finished my observing session at dawn. ZNELM = 5.6m.
Coma was looking faint (twilight) and diffuse, probably not precise DC estimate.
May 2/3 - observed from 00:30 till 01:18 (UT+3)
2010 May 02.91 UT: m1=8.0, dia.=5', DC=4, no tail, 20x90B
[very good transparency, Bortle class 5/6]
Altitude 45°. ML=11.6m
Have easily located it not far away from beta Cephei. ZNELM = 5.5m. North and NW are least light polluted directions at my observing site, so I was lucky here too.
Comet stood out quite clear from the background, certain brightening towards centre, faint (~11m) nearly-stellar condensation. Underestimated DC if compare with other observers (e.g. S.Yoshida), don't know why. Had significantly moved relative to stars during that time.
In 76mm reflector (35х, 56х) it was almost the same, only with lower surface brightness.
Also tried to photograph it at 1:30 (28x15sec@ISO1600 f/4.5), but despite the magnitude limit was ~10.0m, couldn't see the comet in stacked image.
Sketch
Magnitude estimates are based on 4-6 Tycho-2 stars each time (VSS method). Naked-eye limiting magnitude (ZNELM) was estimated with IMO method (triangles).
In ICQ format:
IIIYYYYMnL YYYY MM DD.DD eM mm.m:r AAA.ATF/xxxx &dd.ddnDC &t.ttmANG ICQ XX*OBSXX
2009K5 2010 03 27.10 S 7.9 TK 9.0B 5 20 & 6 2/ ICQ XX KOSXX
2009K5 2010 05 02.91 S 8.0 TK 9.0B 5 20 5 s4 ICQ XX KOSXX
