North is up and East is to the left.
At the distance of the comet, the round field shown here roughly corresponds to the size of the Earth. This image displays the asymmetric components of the coma structure near the cometary nucleus. This is the first image to show evidence of such a well delimited jet this close to the nucleus. The increased near-nucleus activity, as demonstrated on this photo, is a positive sign for the expected performance of the comet when it passes close to the Earth one week from now and also thereafter. Combined with other information which has become available during the past few days, for instance the first naked-eye sighting of a short tail, there is now no doubt that the comet will become a most impressive object in the northern sky during the coming weeks.