Comet Leonard

  I've been trying to view Comet Leonard for some weeks.  First it was in the morning sky, getting ever lower with every passing day, and then in the evenings sky, where at least I wouldn't have to crawl out of bed early. But then the weather turned and there were cloudy skies  and rain almost every day.

 At least now the three planets lined up in an arc in the southern sky offered a good guide as to where the comet was located. And for once the sky cleared.

 I used this telephoto shot (15  seconds) and two stars at the top (18 Cap on the left, 16 Cap on the right) as a guide to see where Comet Leonard should have been located (I have the spot circled in red). Stellarium presented me with this view:

 And here are the  two shots side by side for an easier comparison:

  Bottom line: the comet is nearly impossible to see with anything other than a time exposure so enough  light can be collected. I saw nothing with quick snapshots nor with my binoculars. Is that C/2021 A1? I can't be sure but it seems to be in the right place.

 Another problem was how low the comet was. It was at an altitude of just 8° at 6 PM and half an hour later it had dipped to 4°. That's a lot of  atmosphere to look through. and at those times - even now that we're at the shortest day of the year - the sky still had a  substantial glow.  That light pretty well masks any hope of seeing this dim object (in-the-sky.org shows its magnitude as only 5.6).

 It's a little fuzzy but so are the other stars. There's no visible tail (it would be pointing to the upper left if visible).

 All I can say is I tired.