Evolution of the morphology of comet C/2010 V1

Astronomers Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero think hat the recently discovered comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) has been probably discovered thanks to an outburst. In fact IAUC 9183 reports that Kaoru Ikeya swept the comet's position also on November1st, but did not see the comet down to mag 9-10, despite better conditions than on the 2nd. Moreover the evolution of its coma morphology is rapidly changing from night to night.

The latest image of this comet  taken by Guido &  Sostero of Italy. It was obtained on Nov 8th 2010, remotely from the GRAS Observatory (near Mayhill, NM) through a 0.25-m, f/3.4 reflector + CCD. .(stack of 10X30seconds exposures)

This link shows an an animation displaying the evolution of the morphology of comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) starting from the first image dated Nov 4th to the last image dated Nov 8th, 2010 (the image of Nov 7th is not present due to cloudy sky).

GRAS Press