We will arrive before sunset. The comet will still be rather low on the horizon and should be visible at about 6:44pm. I'll probably be there an hour early to have some time to setup my telescopes and binoculars.
We will have a good view with binoculars and wide field telescopes, and perhaps will see it without a telescope or binoculars as it gets further away from the sun.
Jupiter was visible at 6:44 with a magnitude 2 view at 6:44pm last Monday. The Comet was magnitude 2 as well and would have been visible had it been higher but it was as low as the sun and setting with the sun last Monday.
It will be about fifteen degrees to the south of the setting sun location on Friday. It will be perhaps five to eight degrees above the horizon when it becomes visible as the sky glow decreases. It will set higher and higher each night for a few days and move closer to the location where the sun sets.
See the link attached here with much more detailed writing and plots about the comet.
After mid month the comet will start to be visible in our mornings as well. This because it will be north of the sun and more toward the north star at a higher position. The north star is visible all the time to us because our earths axis is tilted toward it. Stars and objects in the north are often called circumpolar and are visible all year round. As comet Panstarrs heads north it will be visible as a kind of circumpolar object, but it will become fainter as it recedes away from the sun.
http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/comet-panstarrs/
The image below shows approximate estimated positions of the comet as it moves different days closer to the sun. It will be close to the leftmost plot in my crude plot below on Friday.
Hopefully we will have some cloud free viewing over the weekend.
Greg
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