Reports from Geisei Observatory <November 13, 2004>

• C/2003 K4 (LINEAR)
LINEAR (C/2004 K4) looked very bright at 5 o'clock in the morning on November 13. The comet, after passing perihelion, was moving south. In the 20cm refractor at 60x it was a beautiful comet glowing pure-white. It was at 6.5 magnitude and the coma was 8' in diameter. It also showed a faint, narrow tail in the west (PA 270°) and an anti-tail toward the direction of the sun (PA 45°), which is not often seen. In the photograph the tail is rather faint but relatively wide and substantial. The comet is close to the sun and this tail may have caused the non-gravitational effect observed after perihelion in October. It is the jet effect that a comet produces.

C/2003 K4 (LINEAR)

A narrow normal tail to the right (west) and Type 3 (?) tail to the
left perpendicular to the direction of the sun.

Exposure: 5:16 - 5:19 October 13
60cm f/3.5 reflector on T-Max film