Hi,
I was just wondering about the level of detail in comet rendering that
Stellarium wants. Currently, from afar, the comets are balls of light, and when
zoomed into, are rotating spheres with some crater-map. I understand that the
plasma tail comes out cone-shaped, and appears at 1.5 AU, the dust tail appears
at about 3 AU, and the coma is visible when it passes Jupiter (5 AU). And that
the brightness of the coma/ length of tail increases as the comet approaches
the Sun.
So, from afar, a comet would have a coma and tails. But what about when they
are zoomed into? I guess it would have an irregular potato shape like Hartley,
but as it releases gas/dust, should we be able the material coming out from
vents, as the nucleus rotates...?
And also, should we be able to calculate if the observer sees an antitail (due
to parallax), and whether the dust tail is viewed head on (it would be seen as
a fan on a plane) or directly from the side (it would be seen as a straight
line)?
I'm not sure how feasible the above is, so I'm just asking.
Thanks
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