Subsequent observations by other amateur astronomers peg it a bit brighter at 14.0 with a small, condensed coma. Mid to late November is also the time when Comet ISON, the current focus of much professional and amateur observation, will be at its brightest in the morning sky at around magnitude 2-3. Get ready for some busy nights at the telescope! C/2013 R1 will whip by the sun on Christmas Day at a distance of 81 million miles (130.3 million km) and then return back to the deeps from whence it came.
The charts here give you a general idea of its location and path over the next couple months. As the comet crosses into small-scope territory in early November, I'll provide maps for you to find it. And as Stuart Atkinson noted on his website, Cumbrian Sky a great lineup should be in the northern hemisphere skies on November 9, 2013. From the left, Comet Encke will be magnitude 6, ISON should be at about magnitude 6 or 7; then Mars, followed by the new Comet Lovejoy, which will be still very faint at around magnitude 9, topped off by a bright Jupiter. The comets will not likely be of naked eye visibility, but this should be a great chance for astrophotographer to capture this lineup!
The stage can handle many such 'stars' as well as many background actors, so no need to look for the alpha, when there's a whole cast of characters to entertain us.
Otherwise, I liked the Mars angle from the infamous Sorcha Faal site which seems to get all the memos from the Kremlin, some of which are interesting, such as the most recent: "Experts Puzzled After Great Comet Makes Mars Orbital" Adjustments”www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1706.htm
"...seemingly to better align itself with the Red planets strange moon Phobos.[...]a suggestion which led to speculations that Phobos was of artificial origin...[...]launched two probes, Phobos 1 and Phobos 2, towards Mars to gather more information. Phobos 1 was “lost” while Phobos 2 was able to establish an orbit around the Mars moon Phobos when it was “attacked” by a still unexplained space craft that showed itself in the last image beamed back to Earth before it was destroyed. [...]“One reason to suspect that Phobos is not a captured asteroid is its density. Analysis of Mars Express radio science data gave new information about the mass of Phobos based on the gravitational attraction it exerts on the spacecraft. The team concluded that Phobos is likely to contain large voids, which makes it less likely to be a captured asteroid. Its composition and structural strength seem to be inconsistent with the capture scenario.”
Mars moons seem more interesting than these comets at times. These studies remind me of those that tested equations in space that didn't work without some rather large dark body to fill in the gap in the data. So many mysteries, no?