THE SIGNAL BOARD

A thin streak near the horizon tonight, like a comet tail with no bright head. Could that be a distant plane trail catching sunlight? It seemed too late for sunlight, but I am terrible at judging angles.

ion_trail, are you sure the bright head was not outside the binocular field? A faint head is easy to miss beside a broad tail.

deepfield, I swept around it but did not find one. The sky was bright near the horizon, though.

What time did you look? I could barely separate the comet from the twilight yesterday.

juniper_scope: a little after sunset. I was trying before it got too low.

That is a difficult trade-off. Twilight could hide the head while part of the tail reaches darker sky.

Tried again from the hill tonight. Averted vision helped with the head, but it was not remotely obvious.

I tried the hill too. Found the faint condensation this time. The first view really did look like a tail attached to nothing.

Glad you went back. Keep both notes: the conditions are part of the observation, not something to erase once it makes sense.