In a whites-of-the-eyes, do-or-die struggle with the enemy, our hero is last seen trailing smoke and diving into the clouds. Oh no! Is this the end?! Will we ever see him/her again? Ta da! Our hero emerges on the other side, battered, but not beaten.
In a whites-of-the-eyes, do-or-die struggle with the enemy, our hero is last seen trailing smoke and diving into the clouds. Oh no! Is this the end?! Will we ever see him/her again? Ta da! Our hero emerges on the other side, battered, but not beaten.
On the yahoo comet group where speculation still surrounds ISON there was some bold claims that the comet had disappeared altogether and for the nucleus to survive we should of seen a small dot on the SDO approach and perihelion images. On first glance there appeared to be nothing in these images but something was seen last night as the pics came in.
Irrespective of whether any of Ison survived its passage close to the Sun, because of the geometry of its orbit it was never going to be visible from the Southern Hemisphere post perihelion. I've had a number of discussions with members of the public this week who had looked at me as if I had two heads when I've tried to explain this. They don't understand how much of the news feeds we get come from the Northern Hemisphere.
Also, someone earlier implied that Halley was a fizzier in 1986. Not true, probably no comet could live up to the media frenzy that surrounded it. How many of you saw it in the morning sky in March that year - naked eye, with probably 10 degree tail pointing straight up - it was magic!
Nice piece of info from Ian Musgrave, seems the trajectory is still on course.
If the speed and trajectory are good then it's possible more of it survived than first thought.
Also, someone earlier implied that Halley was a fizzier in 1986. Not true, probably no comet could live up to the media frenzy that surrounded it. How many of you saw it in the morning sky in March that year - naked eye, with probably 10 degree tail pointing straight up - it was magic!
Regards
Glenn
Sorry, Glenn, but unless there was another Halley in '86, the one I saw, or at least tried to see, was a disappointing smear with respect to visual appearance. Compared to Bennett that I saw fom my bedroom window in 1971, I was expecting something grander - despite the poor apparition position relative to earth. No comet can live up to expectations, you are right there! Terms like Great are best left until after the event!
While we are talking about Halley, Mark Twain had a birth and death relationship with Halley being born close to its apparition and dying during the 1910 one.
It was Twain who said something like " the rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Perhaps we need to tag this onto ISON???
We really are a lucky generation of amateur astronomers, with easy access to real time images like SOHO.... to be able to watch a comets passage through the solar corona from your couch at home would have been science fiction not that long ago....
Some cool animations from STEREO as well. In the first you can clearly see the start of breakup on the inbound leg. So cool to have complete coverage from 3 spacecraft!
Added a small avi of the last of Comet ISON in STEREO HI1A images.
I hope those able too will try for the hard processed images with there big DSLR cameras. Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Legg ?
The Little Comet That Could
if only tom waterhouse did odds on comet survival ... 
