Where did the tail go?

I wonder if the Aurora and the ejection that went with it somhow blew the tail away?

Whatever happened, images over the last day or dont have a tail.

from uk.sci.astronomy

My Canon 10D image
from the 8th is here:

www.theastronomer.org/comets/2005/2004q2_20050108_ndj.jpg

This was taken in clear, reasonably dark skies but the ion tail is much less
prominent than the last time I imaged the comet on the 4th. This is probably
because of a major disconnection event which occurred whilst we were all
under the storm on the 7th. The dust tail to the south seems about the same
as before if not a little brighter. The entire comet seems a bit fainter
than on the 4th.

The disconnection event is shown nicely in Jager's image of the 7th here:

www.theastronomer.org/comets/2005/2004q2...50107_2130_jager.jpg

where you can see most of the gas tail moving off downstream and only a thin
"spike" remaining.

I have received a few more images from the 8th which I will be uploading to
the TA page later tonight.

Nick. (The Astronomer Magazine)

Interesting? one of the photos is a stacked image and with the speed of the movement of the comet this could easily reduce the brightness of or even cancel out the tail as the tail would be regarded as random noise due to the comet's movement. The b/w image looks like a single very long exposure mosaic of three from a very dark site.

interesting theories, I particularliy like the solar wind explantion.

In the grand scheme of things, it looks like this comet was a bit of a dud anyway. The lack of tail even in the last week and at present - its closest approach - suggests that it was a pretty dead body to start with.

What I would like to know is weather or not Comet Maccholz was actually here previously (even though orbital elements show it wasn't), and that it was pretty well spent from its previous trip eons ago.

Or, is it just a fluffy asteroid in reality, and the coma is just the dust blown off, surrounding it.

Something worth pondering over, but by no means worth doing a Brad over it!



Seanie.

good old comets,
they never fail to un-impress

There are many images on the net with the tail showing clearly so it's not over yet... This shows how the gas tail is quite structured...

www.stevesastro.net/comet/machholz.htm