Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4) May 12th, 2004, 1:50 - 2:15 UT, seeing 5, transparency 4.5. Field of view: 3.5 degrees. North is to the upper right in this sketch. This comet is named for the program that discovered it, Near Earth Asteroid Tracking.

Sketch made with Oberwerk 22x100mm binoculars mounted on a tripod.

The comet had a relatively bright outer coma and smaller inner coma. The pseudo-nucleus appeared stellar. Both the inner coma and pseudo-nucleus appeared light blue in color.

The comet's gas tail appeared to be multi-threaded, feathered, and bisected into two sections: a longer portion that extended back from the coma approximately 1.5 to 2 degrees, with a shorter portion extending off below the coma. A smaller and fainter dust tail extended off the top of coma at a 45-degree angle.