Comet NEAT Poster

This image of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was taken at the WIYN 0.9-metre telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz., on May 7, 2004. The image was captured with the Mosaic I camera, which has a one-square degree field of view, or about five times the size of the Moon. Even with this large field, only the comet's coma and the inner portion of its tail are visible. A small star cluster (C0736-105, or Melotte 72) is visible in the lower right of the image, between the head of the comet and the bright red star in the lower-right corner. This colour image was assembled by combining images taken by Travis Rector (Univ. Alaska, Anchorage), Zolt Levay and Lisa Frattare (STScI/OPO) through blue, green and red filters.