Scroll down to "PHOTOGENIC COMET," which is item 2 on the page. Comet Ikeya-Zhang is still incoming to us, but is largely on the daylight side of the planet. I believe it is still visible just after sunset, and unfortunately to the west, crossing Pisces. You'll be fighting the sunlight for about a month, but it promises to be spectacular as it leaves, actually coming close to Earth in its departure.

The entry includes a finder chart, orbit chart, java-scripted interactive orbit, ephemeris, and a nice photo gallery of recent amateur pics.

I had trouble getting the java-scripted interactive orbit page to open today, but the source page is at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/. When it comes back online, just drop Ikeya-Zhang into the site’s search engine and have fun. You can turn the display in a 3D range, zoom in or out, and accelerate the approach in a daily march. When it’s up (which I find it usually is), it’s a nice JPL site.

Do you see the effect of more stars behind the tail? Could that be a focusing effect, or possibly a sun dog effect caused by the ice crystals which even you admit are present in the tail?

I am telescope-poor (to paraphrase Katie Elder), but I believe the effect on the starlight would be negligible, and more a matter of the comet itself being brighter than the star.

Dan