Comet 17p/Holmes

[Darryl]

I got a chance to see comet 17p/Holmes last night. It is definitely naked eye. With my eyes, sky conditions, and location it looked like an out of focus star or the way a star might look with some thin cloud obscuring it.

I had actually forgotten it was there as it hadn't been clear in the past few nights. I went to the Sky and Telescope web site and they had a finder chart for Comet 17p Holmes on their home page. I went back outside and had no problem picking it out even with a street light 30-40ft away. I figure it took 5 seconds to find once I new where it was supposed to be in the sky. If you aren't sure where to start looking it might not jump out at you right away.

I then got out the binoculars after finding Comet 17p/Holmes naked eye and it improved the view significantly. It looked like a round grey snowball and was larger than I thought it would be. I guess its because its in a couple of chunks that it looks so large.

I am going to try and take another look at Comet 17p/Holmes tonight if its clear.

Has anybody else had a chance to see it, other than those who have submitted images to the Gallery

Regards,

[Blue Fire]

Yep, count me in! I caught up with it just tonight. I actually saw it with naked eyes first but didn't recognize it as anything other than a star,... until I put my binoculars on it and was treated to the unmistakable and comparatively huge fuzz ball/snowball image. Wow!

As I've said before, Jeez! - I love comets!!! I'm going to be following this one for sure!

[Blue Fire]

Just wanted everyone to know that I've been doing my Astro-Civic duties relentlessly. So far I've pointed the comet out to my 2 brothers and 2 other friends. And I've still got a couple more folks pending to light a fire under them and get them outside to look. If there's anything that excites me, it comets!

[Blue Fire]

I was out observing Comet Holmes this evening at about 7:30 p.m. (not really sure of the exact time) through my 12x binocs and I suddenly saw a bright flash through the binocs that lasted only as long as a lightning bolt and that temporarily wiped out my view of the comet. I put down the binocs and scanned the sky - there were some wispy clouds obscuring part of the sky below the comet, but I can't imagine that they were storm clouds and I saw no further flashes.

So, is it possible that there was an Iridium satellite flare nearby that would account for what I saw? Anybody?

[dmill1220]

I photographed it a couple of nights ago from my front yard, I was impressed to see it via the naked eye, What I do find strange is the way it has brightened, In my Photo, you can clearly see the Nucleus and what appears to be a faint tail along with other small tails or jets of material, and the big circular glow that completely surrounds it.
the puzzling part for me is the lack of a Compressed bow shock in the circular glowing cloud from the Solar Wind, it seems to be out gassing without the Bow shock effect.
I will try to upload my image of it later, the image I made was more of an attempt to capture the nucleus, so the round Halo surrounding it is not as pronounced but it is clearly visible.

Edit : here is my image of Holmes Without processing. I took this image as a Jpeg so no further enhancements have been made you can clearly see the Blue Halo around my stars from CA that has not been removed yet.
I can see a small bow shock at the front of the nucleus but no bow shock is visible in the much larger Halo.

Dennis

[Blue Fire]

Nice shot Dennis! Indeed a puzzling, but fascinating cometary phenomenon.

[dmill1220]

Hi folks,

I managed to remove some of that offensive Ca around Mirfak and the other brighter stars near the comet, I also decolorized it. I seem to have some interlacing artifacts, Oh well, I tried!

Dennis