Comet C/2012 K1

I decided to haul out the big gun tonight and go after that dim comet I tried to see in binoculars a couple of nights ago, C/2012 K1.  It had moved a bit but was still near the handle of the big dipper and high in the sky, almost too high for my 8" dob.  Rather than stand on my head to use the red dot finder, I used my green laser pointer instead and it worked beautifully. A quick point, fine tune with the 9x50 and bingo, right on target and definitely a comet.  I could see the coma nicely and it even sported what appeared to be a small tail.  I would say it compared well in brightness to the two nearby field stars which Sky Safari Pro showed as mag 11 and 12.  After admiring the last comet in my collection, I moved over slightly to take a look at M51, a nice spiral galaxy with a NGC neighbor.  I could convince myself that I saw a spiral but it really just looked like two foggy dim lights. Neither was visible in the 9x50 or my 7x50 binocs for that matter.
It was a nice night to be out but getting late and I was tired after an evening of square dancing in town.  Judy wasn't able to dance with her bum knee but I managed to find partners for most of the dances.  Fun time with Doug Mallory calling.  I'm glad to see he's doing a bit of workshop with the club.  Last night it was teacup chain and they did pretty good all in all.