El cometa NEAT (Q4) sobre Indian Cove
El cometa NEAT (Q4) estaba muy fotogénico a principios de este mes. Aunque la cabeza y parte de las colas...
Comet NEAT (Q4) was quite photogenic earlier this month.
Although the head and part of the tails of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) were visible to the unaided eye, the best views of the colorful tail were revealed only later by cameras able to expose for long periods.
A human eye can accumulate light for up to 1/10th of a second, as opposed to the above camera image, which used an exposure of nine minutes on May 8.
Visible is a long blue ion tail, a blue coma surrounding the comet´s nucleus, and a shorter but brighter sunlight reflecting dust tail.
Q4 is dropping more from easy visibility each day as it recedes from both the Earth and the Sun.
Another separate naked-eye comet, Comet LINEAR (T7), should remain bright into June.