[Elspode]

It was Halley that got me into astronomy in the 80's in the first place. Or rather, the reason I bought a telescope.

I prepared myself for a full year before it was even possible to see with amateur equipment. We found it when it was still four months from perihelion, a small fuzzy blob that, over the course of a few hours, could be seen to have noticably changed positions in relation to the starfield it was in.

On the morning of perihelion, I stayed out all night long in 20 degree weather and 20 mph winds, awaiting its rising just 30 minutes before the sun. It was awesome watching its long, long tail pointing upward from the horizon, growing longer as the sky slowly brightened. When the coma finally cleared the horizon, it was a truly humbling moment for me.

We went on to watch it recede from the Earth, and were able to observe it with a 10" dobsonian all the way into late Spring. It wasn't Halley's most auspicious apparition, but it was the only one that most of us will ever see, and it was grand.