That’s a euphemism, right ?
6-7 miles by road, a mile shorter on foot, but it wouldn’t help much. I’d really need to go east or west to get Abingdon/Oxford out of the way. East I don’t think Wittenham Clumps would be far enough, which means getting into the Chilterns the other side of Wallingford. The view north over Ewelme would probably be pretty dark (except for @MGOwner’s car headlights). West would likely be a better bet. There might be a dark gap before Wantage, depending on whether the comet is E or W of N. But you can’t really drive to the Ridgeway there. Roads which cross it are quite few and far between. (If you live in Mercia why would you want to go to Wessex ? And vice versa.) Scutchamer Knob would be the best bet. Otherwise you’d need to be west of Wantage, say at Sparsholt Firs.
All that said, I went out just before midnight and the whole sky here was 70-80% covered by puffy clouds.
VB
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Managed to see it around 23:00 last night from my back door. Does help to the north is Hampstead Heath which reduces light glare. Didn’t bother to attempt photo though as 10x zoom on the iPhone 11 although OK isn’t enough to capture a faint comet low down on the horizon.
Good question, cos it’s pretty close to the sun (closer than Mercury) - close enough that this perihelion will increase its periodicity from ~4,500 years* to ~6,800 years - which means it could break-up at any time. If it doesn’t, it should be visible for a couple of weeks or so.
** I love the fact that last time it passed this way this place would have been sparkling new and still in its original coat of Magnolia emulsion…
Thing is it’s naked-eye visible at ~11pm when the sunset is still very much A Thing, so I’m not convinced town glare will obscure it, especially later in the night.
Boston is 10 miles away almost exactly in-line between us and it, and makes no significant difference. Does require the sky be clear of course - any haze at-all does make light pollution disproportionately worse, and sadly Oxon does tend to be cloudy.
Might give it a try tomorrow. Mondays are wine-free nights (cue jokes about nights without wine being like nights without sunshine) so I wouldn’t mind getting to the nearest bump in the ground high enough to see the horizon (probably Wittenham) by car.
VB
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Ooh forecast to be clear tomorrow evening here too.
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Just been out and seen it. Stunning! Lovely clear view of it down here in Cornwall… not much light pollution at all where I am. I became somewhat entranced out there for a while.
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No moon probably helped a little as well. Stunning nights for a bit of celestial nightdreaming… 
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Too much cloud here. I’m not making the effort again.
Fuck you interstellar flying rock !
Not even attempted to see it. Too much not dark here.
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Damnit- we were forecast to have a clear evening. No longer, it seems
Yeah, you crossed my mind on a “clearest skies + prolly has a decent long lens” basis, and then remembered the permadusk…
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yay! Dumbass here had reset clear outside to Exeter
Still looking like decent prospects here
https://clearoutside.com/forecast/55.95/-3.19
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It’s a weather forecast. Many of them struggle even with now-casting. Unless they’re predicting a third day of gale-force winds or unbroken blazing sunshine, following the two we’ve already verifiably had, I tend to treat them a bit like the Today programme’s racing tips.
VB
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Success! Great views with 7x50 bins and also 16x with my scope. Also saw Saturn’s rings clearly at 50x although it was very windy so snatching glimpses and couldn’t go to 100x. Some smudgy detail on Jupiter and moons visible on the bins as well. First time viewing Jupiter and Saturn. Great evening, just home now.
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Nice one! Pleased it finally panned-out for you
No chance here, mizzle and haar at the moment. Even the dogs could barely be arsed.
There’s something very exciting about seeing Jupiter’s moons or Saturn’s rings for the first time via decent optics. It does also remind you what an achievement it was for pioneering astronomers who must’ve gradually honed the quality of their lenses and been clever enough to interpret what they were seeing.
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Definitely.
The comet was quite unreal looking, like someone had painted a comet on the sky. Amazing.
Thanks to @Mrs_Maureen_OPinion for this thread- I haven’t been keeping abreast of interesting sights in the night sky and I probably would have missed this if it wasn’t for this thread.
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I’ve the dogs to thank - if I didn’t walk them late at night I might never have known it was there, but 4 days ago we were pottering to Money Bridge and it kept catching my eye - at first I expected it to vanish as it just looked like an odd wisp of cloud, which I initially assumed just happened to coincide with a star - but it didn’t shift at-all, so I hurried back and grabbed the bins and was blown-away!
I’m a mite surprised there’s been so little in the news - our Lokel nothing-to-reporters only belatedly woke up to it when someone sent them a weather pic with the comet featured in it last night (which was the first night you couldn’t see it in Lincs…).