Scientists estimate that Ikeya-Seki's icy nucleus was some kilometers wide. The smaller fragments are tremendously faint except for a few days before perihelion. By the time SOHO spots them they are in their death-throes. A similar disruption of Ephorus's comet 2,000 years ago may have created the existing family of sungrazing comets seen by SOHO today. SOHO's impressive spate of comet finds can be attributed in large part to the efforts of amateur astronomers.
SOHO data are freely available to anyone with an internet connection and a computer.
Both realtime and archival images are accessible at the SOHO web site, a popular destination for comet hunters. SOHO carries two coronagraphs. The C2 instrument monitors the corona from 2.5 to 6 solar radii from the center of the visible Sun. It monitors activity at distances of 4 to 30 solar radii. We really didn't expect to find many in C2, because by the time the comets are close enough to the Sun to fall within C2's narrow field of view they are moving very quickly.