Sadly, but not unexpectedly, C/2026 A1 (MAPS) did not survive
perihelion. The nucleus broke up before perihelion and the debris will
have been destroyed. We won't have a headless wonder in the evening sky!

A small amount of dust which was released several hours earlier did
survive and became visible as a faint cloud to the west of the Sun. It
is unlikely that this will be observable, particularly since the Moon
will be in the morning sky.

I've put an animation made up of LASCO C2 images on the BAA website here:

https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20260405_091544_fe658e5ddc7bfd61

Nick.

On 04/04/2026 11:48, denis buczynski - buczynski8166 at btinternet.com
(via baa-comet list) wrote:
> Hi Mark,
> I am no expert, but I believe the flattening shape of the comet head in
> the LASCO 3 images is due to the saturation spikes. We will see if the
> comet survives perihelion ,as it has disapeared behind the coronograph
> occulting disk now.
> Denis
>          ps here is a time lapse from the CCOR-1 Coronagraph
> https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/ccor-1-coronagraph-experimental