Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT): Northern Arizona

I was treated to my first view of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) from a true dark site,
last night. I'd been observing the comet from my back deck--fairly easy naked
eye object--in north Flagstaff since last weekend. Even my 3-year-old was able
to spot NEAT in 10x50 binoculars.

Thursday night, I drove north to the Doney Mountain Picnic Area near Wupatki.
From this site, the comet was an obvious addition to the cosmic landscape just
below the Beehive cluster. I made two drawings between 9:00pm and 10:30pm, one
capturing the view in my 10x50 Swift Audubons and the other rendering a
low-power view in my 10-inch Newtonian:
http://members.aol.com/billferris/neat051404.html

Through the Audubons, NEAT displayed a bright and slightly egg-shaped coma. A
distinct slender tail stretched east for about 4-degrees. A more delicate tail
curved south-southeast from the coma over a distance of about 2-degrees. A
broad stubby dust tail filled the gap between these.

The 10-inch revealed a sharp, stellar core embedded within the coma. However,
the 1.5-degree true field simply could not contain the three tails. The
binoculars definitely provided the best view.

Chris Schur's stunning photo of NEAT from May 8
(http://www.psiaz.com/schur/astro/latest52.html ) shows blue, green and
yellow-brown tails. If I'm interpreting my views correctly, the blue ion tail
is the longest of the three and stretches east from the comet. The green ion
tail is the one pointing generally south-southeast. And the region between is
filled by the yellow-brownish dust tail.

NEAT is easily the best comet I've seen since Hale-Bopp. Although, I have to
admit missing Bradfield's recent display. Sleep was just too precious a
commodity to give up at the time Bradfield graced our pre-dawn sky.

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
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