now i remember my comets 101 a little better Coops! i also now remember the other old analogy ( for sunward facing jets) of the lawn sprinkler hehe albiet a very slow or stuck one in this case
Comet 2000 WM1 (LINEAR) another dust comet, on a much smaller scale,, had similarities back in jan/feb 2002 during outburst -
Michael Mattiazzo has some great images of jet activity , of WM1 at that time, that might help with conceptualising similar morphology in Comet Lovejoy for some who may be new to this stuff, and getting head around it .. altho in WM1's case it was more side on view at that time, rather than this perspective of from behind we are experiencing with C lovejoy
http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/images/wm1jan31.jpg