Normal service from tonight for you folks 
Here is my first offering for you.
Todays pic is another follow up on Comet Neat as it makes it's way sunward.
Comet Neat Passes an Erupting Sun
As Comet NEAT flared last week, the Sun roared. Just as the comet swooped inside the orbit of Mercury and developed a long and flowing tail of gas and dust, the Sun emitted a huge Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Neither the fortuitous hot ball of solar gas nor the intense glare of sunlight appeared to disrupt the comet's nucleus. The action was too close to the Sun to be easily visible by humans, but the orbiting Sun-pointing SOHO satellite had a clear view of the celestial daredevil show. The above image was taken on February 18 when the comet was so bright it created an artificial horizontal streak on the camera image. During the encounter, Comet NEAT, official designation (C/2002 V1), brightened to second magnitude. An opaque disk blocked the Sun's image. The now-outbound comet remains bright but will surely fade as it moves away from the Sun. Nevertheless, Comet NEAT will likely be visible with binoculars to southern hemisphere observers for the next month.
A higher res version of this piccy can be found here, this is a 116K Jpeg image.
Credit: SOHO Consortium, LASCO, ESA, NASA
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
20th Feb 03
19th Feb 03
17th Feb 03
16th Feb 03
15th Feb 03
14th Feb 03
Here is my first offering for you.
Todays pic is another follow up on Comet Neat as it makes it's way sunward.
Comet Neat Passes an Erupting Sun
As Comet NEAT flared last week, the Sun roared. Just as the comet swooped inside the orbit of Mercury and developed a long and flowing tail of gas and dust, the Sun emitted a huge Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Neither the fortuitous hot ball of solar gas nor the intense glare of sunlight appeared to disrupt the comet's nucleus. The action was too close to the Sun to be easily visible by humans, but the orbiting Sun-pointing SOHO satellite had a clear view of the celestial daredevil show. The above image was taken on February 18 when the comet was so bright it created an artificial horizontal streak on the camera image. During the encounter, Comet NEAT, official designation (C/2002 V1), brightened to second magnitude. An opaque disk blocked the Sun's image. The now-outbound comet remains bright but will surely fade as it moves away from the Sun. Nevertheless, Comet NEAT will likely be visible with binoculars to southern hemisphere observers for the next month.
A higher res version of this piccy can be found here, this is a 116K Jpeg image.
Credit: SOHO Consortium, LASCO, ESA, NASA
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
20th Feb 03
19th Feb 03
17th Feb 03
16th Feb 03
15th Feb 03
14th Feb 03
