Comet P/holmes (17P)

[iancandler]

I just had this emailed through to me from my local astro club this evening, if anyone gets clear skies its worth a look by the sounds of it.

Hi All,

See the attached BAA circular which gives details of a comet which

was observed at 13.00hrs today at THIRD MAGNITUDE. It is also visible

ALL NIGHT from the UK.

This is a very rare occurance and must be observed.

Just get rid of this cloud!!

Peter

=============================================================

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00313 http://www.britastro.org/

============================================================

In the past 24 hours, a spectacular event has taken place involving

the

periodic comet P/Holmes (17P). Its predicted brightness is about

magnitude

17 however last night it was discovered by the Spanish amateur, Juan

Antonio

Henríquez Santana to have undergone a tremendous outburst having

attained

magnitude 10 at that time (Oct 24 0h UT). It was a similar outburst

in 1892

that led to its discovery.

Latest reports (Seiichi Yoshida, Oct 24 13h UT) indicate that it is

stellar

in appearance and 3RD MAGNITUDE in brightness: so bright in fact that

it is

readily visible to the unaided eye. That's almost one million times

brighter than normal !

Fortunately for UK-based observers the comet is well placed for

observation

and is visible throughout the entire night. Its position at 0h UT

tonight

(Oct 24/25) will be:

R.A. 03h 53.0m, Dec. +50 08'

Its appearance will probably be that of a fairly bright naked-eye

star

moving at an apparent rate of close to 10 arcmin per day at PA 298

deg. It

is currently 1.63 AU (245 million km) from the Earth.

Observations are strongly encouraged and should be reported to

Jonathan

Shanklin, Director of the Comet Section.

Clear Skies

Richard Miles

[anthony]

Thanks for the heads up and double thanks for the screen grab of the location

Anthony

[iancandler]

Your welcome Anthony, it took me a while to find it on my program so I thought I would save others the messing around hunting for it.

[Ant]

Nice one Ian. Looking OK for Friday evening.

So I'll be out!

Ant

[trevboyd]

This sounds cool, well worth a look, but it looks like clouds for days to come now... Does anyone know how long its visible for?

Thanks

Trev

[Casus belli]

Very easy to see. My 16 x70 binos show a yellowishy blobby thingie where a yellowish blobby thingie previously wasnt.

It was the 1st thing I looked at and Im a newbie at this kinda thing. Full moon is a pain though.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Very easy to see. My 16 x70 binos show a yellowishy blobby thingie where a yellowish blobby thingie previously wasnt.

It was the 1st thing I looked at and Im a newbie at this kinda thing. Full moon is a pain though.

Full cloud is too.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[saturn5]

=

[saturn5]

-

[Astroman]

Nice image, S5! This is exactly as I saw it through the EP last night, (except color-wise). My impression was of a planetary nebula.

[Talitha]

It's the weirdest looking comet I've ever seen.

The tiny and intensely bright nucleus has a fan-shaped coma extending towards the SW.. it looks like Hubbles' Variable Nebula. That's not strange, though.. the weird part is that there's a perfectly round, diffuse 'cloud' surrounding them, with the nucleus at dead-center.

Stranger still is the fact that there's another cloud surrounding that one, but it's much, much weaker and I didn't detect it till the Moon was lower in elevation.

Here is a pretty reasonable explanation regarding the cause of the outburst, and this image comes the closest to what I saw last night in the eyepiece of my f/10 8"SCT at 144x.

The comet is about one degree SW of 43 PER and is easily a naked-eye object despite the moonglow. Another strange thing about this comet is that none of the images display the customary green signature color we've come to associate with comet images.

[Trevor]

S5 that’s a very good picture check out the APOD one here http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

Edit:

Why not add it to the Gallery? http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_holmes.html

[Naz]

Managed to see it last night through 10 X 50 bins. Easy object to find. If its clear tonight, hope to get the dob on it

naz

[SteelRat]

[Astroman]

Checked this comet out last night, and the night before in the C8, but didn't find time to post.

Night before last, I misidentified it. I thought it was a red star that's in the neighborhood, HD 232820, for some reason. It appeared extended and brighter in the middle, but I thought it was a combination of fatigue, (it'd been a long day), and some full Moon distortion.

Last night, I generated a better chart and found it straight away. Much larger than the night before, with 2 bright nodes in the center. It looks very much like a planetary nebula. There's a wedge-shaped fan extending off to the southwest, but not very far. This could be the ion tail, but I haven't confirmed that. The dust tail would therefore be the enlarging "shroud" or shells around the coma. My feelings are that we are viewing the comet straight down the barrel, as it were. If true, this means it's coming straight at us, and the question becomes, will we move out of the way before it arrives? :shock: Not to worry, the answer is "Easily!"

I haven't showed it to Rosie yet, but the opportunity won't arise until tomorrow. SHould be cool!

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Sorry to sound dumb AM, but I thought that the tail went away from the sun and had not a lot to do with the direction that the comet is travelling in. If we are between it and the sun, then we would be seeing tha tail behind it. Is that what you reckon is happening here?

Kaptain Klevtsov

[David Galvin]

Does this link to JPL help?

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17P%2FHolmes;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Thank you David, and welcome to SGL. It does rather look like we are seeing it head on from the diagram.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[SteelRat]

If true, this means it's coming straight at us!

Gulp :shock:

will we move out of the way before it arrives?:shock: Not to worry, the answer is "Easily!"

Phew!

On inspection of the orbit diagram; DOUBLE phew!

It's got quite bright by all accounts are we going to see this thing wizz past at some stage? 8)

[David Galvin]

Thanks for the welcome. I have been lurking in the background since July and find the group very informative. It amazes me the amount of knowledge that can be found on the forums.

With regards to the comet, the JPL orrey does show that we are looking directly at it although the gap is getting bigger. So I assume that the ion tail that is blown away from the Sun is 'behind' the comet as seen from Earth and the dust tail is left in the wake of the comet as it orbits the Sun.

This shows on the images as a small brightening to one edge. Seems to make sense to me.

I am now waiting for some clear skies so that I can observe it. Fingers crossed and keep up the good work.

[Astroman]

Thanks, David, and welcome. That diagram makes my point nicely.

KK:I expect we'll see the comet begin to look like one in a couple weeks, but will it be bright enough to see? Hmmm...

[GazOC]

My Starry Night update doesn't seem to include this comet....has anyone else found this?

[AndyH]

Yup. Not for me either.

Andy.

[David Galvin]

I had the same problem but I have managed to get around it. The problem is, maybe, due to the fact that the comet should be mag. +17 and it is not!

Go into 'Find' and type in HOLMES. If it has updated then it should come up with HOLMES (17P) in the found box. Put a tick in the box and it should label the comet on screen. Also go into Veiw Options. then Solar System. Put a tick in the comet box and then click on Comet Options and look at the bottom and tick the 'label even when very dim' box. save the file if you want.

Hopefuly that should work. :shock:

[GazOC]

Cheers David thats done the trick!!

Welcome to Stargazers BTW.