Now that all the excitement has died down a little, I felt it only right that poor old ISON got at least one blog post from me, to commemorate its passing.
I, like many others (my fellow astro-obsessed people), watched intently the journey of comet ISON over the last couple of weeks of November to today in early December, culminating at the very end of November (perihelion on the 28th) in ISON’s passage around the sun and thence to its final demise to naught but a wisp of dust and particles (although speculation still abounds!).

A time-lapse image of comet ISONs perihelion.

This information above probably comes as no great shock to anybody.
Anyone into space and astronomy was watching.
However ……
I feel I have to comment on the unpresidented activity that ISON’s slingshot round the sun caused. I for one was glued to my twitter feed, the helioviewer website and the NASA and ESA feeds of LASCO, SOHO and STEREO data.
It was joyous to behold !
….. but not because of ISON itself but of what it caused. The huge level of interest in this space based phenomena. A surge of tweets and posts, as so many like-minded science lovers looked on, and speculated, postulated and discussed.
But it became more than just the science community, for a time ISON entered the domain of the common man and sought to complete almost as a celebrity. It was trending on twitter, discussed on local radio stations and given plenty of attention in the national media and television.
How wonderful that science could be brought to the fore and engage so many people by the travel of a lump of icy rock that began its journey from the very farthest reaches of our solar system over a million years ago.

C/2012 S1 (ISON) ….. I salute you !