Reports from Geisei Observatory <December 31, 2013>

Illusory Comet ISON

    In the northern sky near the dawn, the course that Comet ISON had been expected to take has come into view. I turned the 70cm reflector to the comet right away.
    From the photograph I should be able to see the comet moving northward at a considerable speed, but this photograph is deceptively empty. By now, the comet with a solid nucleus trailing a fan-shaped beautiful tail should be seen in the middle of this photograph. I must not be the only person who wished to view such an image of Comet ISON shining above the snow-capped northern mountains.
    If you examine this photograph with great care, you may be able to detect the remnants of the disintegrated comet moving in fine grains of dust. It would be unimaginably faint. The remnants without the host are moving steadily toward the celestial North Pole.