Before Christmas 2012 I noted with keen interest that Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs was to cross very closely a point in the sky exactly 10 years to the day after Comet C/2002 V1 Neat had been through the same piece of sky. I was fortunate to take a photo of NEAT on that night and I was doubly fortunate in getting one of Panstarrs there tonight! Attached are the two images combined with all of the details added to the images.
The similarities between the two comets is quite staggering. The big difference tonight was the presence of the Moon 2 days past full on the opposite horizon. The moonlight is definitely hindering Panstarrs from revealing more of its fine dust tail which you can see in the 300mm shot attached. taken with my Canon 450D at f/5.6 90 seconds (guided) ISO 800.
Wishing all of you across the ditch clear skies (soon!)
Hi Matt, I'll try it again tomorrow night if this fantastic weather holds out until then. I won't have the moon so it will appear darker like the NEAT shot. Panstarrs will be a little to the right of where NEAT was so it will still look very similar. Hopefully I can pick up more of the golden dust tail. In the 300mm shot you can see the start of the anti-tail, but you can see more in my mate George Ionas' shot in the comet gallery over at Spaceweather.com.
I'll try my luck tomorrow night.
