Comet of the Century is Here

From Aces:

Mike Hankey snapped this beautiful shot today from Monkton Maryland

Over the last 24 hours, Comet ISON experienced an "outburst" event that places it well within range of the naked eye for rural observers and within binocular range for residents of even the brightest cities. We've been waiting all year, and it seems it has finally decided to "wake up". From NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign:

It could be that the comet is now simply finally “turning on”. After all, it is now only 0.66AU (61,000,000mi, 99,000,000km) from the sun, and if it is to reach the [brightness] at perihelion we’ve always thought it would, then it needs to start brightening by an order or two magnitudes within the next week. So this could be really great news, and indicate that we are indeed going to have a nice bright comet in our solar spacecraft images in a couple of weeks time!

 Lots more at the link: