Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzy
Kevin, aplogies, I should've made it clearer- I meant Lovejoy is further from the sun than ISON, not Earth. I thought ISON would be out performing Lovejoy being closer to the sun  . 
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There are a number of factors that make one comet perform over another. Distance of the comet to both the Sun and Earth have to be taken into account, comet size and how active it is. Another is tail angle. A comet may have a beautiful long tail but if the geometry is such that we look down the tail rather than broadside, the view is poor.
Sorry I took a week to respond. And I still can't find half the buttons on facebook!