Comet McNaught C/2006 P1
14th January 2007 1216UT, 5 degrees from the Sun!
No, this isn't Venus! This is the head of comet McNaught taken in daylight just 5 degrees from the Sun. The image was taken afocal through a 15mm Plossl eyepiece on my 14" reflector with a Coolpix 885 digicam, exposure was 1/1000s at f9.6 on the camera at ISO 100 equivalent. Only processing was to darken the sky in Photoshop. Couldn't see the comet in binoculars - the sky way too bright, so got focus and position on Venus and used the GOTO on the 'scope to go to the comet. The comaet wasn't visible at first but as the high cloud thinned there it was! Similar in brightness to Venus ~mag -4.0. No tail was visible but I'm sure it would have been had the sky been more transparent.
10th January 2007 1706UT
Saw the comet from a bitterly cold bridge over the M62. Picture above was the best I could do with my old Coolpix 885. 1sec exposure, hand held. The comet was certainly mag -1 and probably brighter. The tail stretched for ~6 degrees, easily seen in twilight with the naked eye and 10x50 binoculars. Amazing sight!