Could someone help, us new star gazers. We cannot seem to find the comet. Everyone talks about how clear and easy it is to see. I have scanned my sky all month going between west and wsw. At first I thought it was just to low on the horizon, but according to the maps I have looked at we should be able to see it. Could some help and use as simple directions as possible. It is driving me crazy!! I really would like to see it before it is gone.
thanks

I saw it last night, but needed binoculars as I am in San Francisco where the sky is not very dark.

Locate Venus. It's the brightest thing in the western sky.
Locate Mars and Saturn. They're near Venus, but higher and a little more south.
Locate the star (I forget its name) that is as high as Saturn, and as bright as Saturn, but is south of Saturn by 10-20 degrees. The comet is near that star. The comet is climbing fast each day, so look above that star. Use binoculars until you find the fuzzy blob, then try to see it with your naked eyes. Good luck.

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These are from last Friday night when the comet passed near the Beehive cluster just like the Sky & Telescope map said it would.

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This taken from Conon Bridge, Scotland (Lat: 57°33'50"N Lon: 4°25'24"W).

Comet NEAT viewed in darker skies between 00:25h and 0045h BST on 15 May 2004.

The comet was very easy to find using 70mm binoculars as it was a little lower and right of the Behive cluster (M44) in Cancer and in the same field of view.

All the images were taken using a Nikon Coolpix 5700 digital camera with the following settings (Images 1,3, and 5 are on the left from top to bottom, Images 2, 4, and 6 are on the right from top to bottom):

Image 1: fl=35mm, 15.5sec, f/3.8, ISO 800
Image 2: fl=140mm, 8sec, f/4.2, ISO 800
Image 3: fl=142mm, 8sec, f/4.2, ISO 800
Image 4: fl=285mm, 4sec, f/4.2, ISO 800
Image 5: fl=155mm, 8sec, f/4.2, ISO 800
Image 6: fl=285mm, 8sec, f/4.2, ISO 800

Image 1 shows a small blurry Beehive cluster between two bright stars in Cancer (Iota Cancri and Gamma Cancri). The faint fuzzy greenish comet can be seen below and slighty to the right of the cluster.

Image 2 shows a better defined Beehive cluster and the comet is much more evident, with the bright Theta Cancri immediately below it.

Note the star-trailing even with a relatively short exposure of 8 seconds. This happens with digital photography but it is less of a problem with emulsion film.

The remaining images are as close up shots as I could get without using a telescope and the small faint tail is just visible, especially in Images 4, 5, and 6.

Cheers from Bonnie Scotland and Happy Comet Hunting

Is Neat a brandy new comet?

Just moved this to Astrophotography since Reckless and tony873004 had some nice pictures of Comet NEAT .

comets are wonderful objects