德國馬克斯普朗克太陽系研究所(Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research)今日發新聞公佈,指光科網彗星有碎片由彗核拋離。在德國位於慕尼黑的路德維希 - 馬克西米利安大學(Ludwig-Maximilians-University),文德爾施泰因天文台(Wendelstein Observatory)的科學家在上週末拍攝的照片,發現彗核有破裂的特徵。而碎片的出現可以解釋彗星的最近突然爆發的現象。
I woke up at 5am this morning at home in Sai Wan Ho and noted that the light pollution was not too bad. I used my old toy (D=114mm f8.7) with an eyepiece of 40mm to try catching ISON by the window. At around 5:30am, I started from Spica moving up to g Vir and then finally up to where ISON should be. I saw its nucleus and coma but not really the tails. I could watch it till 6am when the sky became too bright for further observation. Given the limited condition, I could not take any picture. By comparing it to g Vir, I believed that its magnitude was between 6 and 5 as reported. I will see if I could try again tomorrow morning.