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Comet 17P Holmes !!.

John

By John
in Observing - Reports

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John

John

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Posted

Yahoo !!! - I've just spotted comet 17P Holmes !!.

Clear evening here (13 miles SW of Bristol) I found the comet easily in the twighlight with the naked eye. Confirmed with 10x50 binocs.

Looks pretty amazing with my 100mm frac at 51x (13mm Nagler) broad, circular halo of misty light (a bit like a large, bright globular cluster). Condensed towards the central region and appears to have a central star / nucleus but that could be a background star shining though it. The condensed region is not central but offset more on one side than the other.

I'll keep observing while the skies remain clear and try and get the 10 inch dob on it :smiley::evil::(

John

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PaulR

PaulR

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Excellent here in the Midlands!!

Easy-peasy naked eye as soon as I walked out the door! Looks like a fried egg through the 'scope with two stars 'within' - one in the nucleus the other near the fuzzy edge! Superb, hope it'll stay clear!

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John

John

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Lots of cloud about now and the moon is rising so conditions nowhere near as good all of a sudden :smiley:

Got the 10 inch out and the view was similar to the 102mm frac but brighter of course and with one or two more background stars shining through the comet "halo". View though 24mm Panoptic will re-charge my enthusiam for this hobby for sometime to come :evil::(:) :)

Here's a link to a pic taken by someone else cleverer than me which shows pretty much what I could see:

http://tinyurl.com/2njkw9

John

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Yep , no need for GOTO for this object easy to spot with naked eye. Very unusual to have such a bright core. I assume It must be approaching us - no visible tail.?

that is a WELL exciting thought!! If it misses us it will be a spectacular sight flying past us. If it hits us... well, at least we can say it was good old astronomy that put an end to the human race, and not humans themselves!

I really want to get out and see this one, were it not for :smiley:

Andrew

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John

John

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PS - I wonder where this comet is in its orbit round the Sun ?, I assume it must be close in or it would not be producing so much gas.

Actually it made it's closest approach to the Sun in May 2007 so it's heading away from the Sun - I'm not sure the pro's are entirely sure why it has chosen now to brighten so massively.

According to the ESA website this comet takes 6.88 years to complete each orbit.

John

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jcm

jcm

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PS - I wonder where this comet is in its orbit round the Sun ?, I assume it must be close in or it would not be producing so much gas.

Actually it made it's closest approach to the Sun in May 2007 so it's heading away from the Sun - I'm not sure the pro's are entirely sure why it has chosen now to brighten so massively.

According to the ESA website this comet takes 6.88 years to complete each orbit.

John

So its not the action of the Sun causing the brightening its something to do with the comet itself?

John

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AndyH

AndyH

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Hurrah!!! Clouds moved out of the way for a bit. Very obvious to the naked eye, and a lovely ball of fuzz through bincs. Just managed a glimpse with my small mak, and it was lovely at 35x.

Most pleased.

Andy.

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Roy Batty

Roy Batty

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PS - I wonder where this comet is in its orbit round the Sun ?, I assume it must be close in or it would not be producing so much gas.

Actually it made it's closest approach to the Sun in May 2007 so it's heading away from the Sun - I'm not sure the pro's are entirely sure why it has chosen now to brighten so massively.

According to the ESA website this comet takes 6.88 years to complete each orbit.

John

Lucky enough to get a peek tonight at around 7:30PM through the bins before the cloud rolled in again, must say it's pretty much unmissable at the moment - as bright as anything visual in perseus at the mo. Even with the moon fairly bright in the same part of the sky when i was viewing it. 8)

I read somewhere that one of the theories as to the brightening is that a crack may have opened up on the surface exposing a large amount of new material - i.e. fresh ice hence the brightness.

Hope the weather improves over the next few days so we can get a few images.

RB

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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PS - I wonder where this comet is in its orbit round the Sun ?, I assume it must be close in or it would not be producing so much gas.

Actually it made it's closest approach to the Sun in May 2007 so it's heading away from the Sun - I'm not sure the pro's are entirely sure why it has chosen now to brighten so massively.

According to the ESA website this comet takes 6.88 years to complete each orbit.

John

So, it should be back in 2014, in warmer weather! :evil: If the weather is warmer, will that mean even more stuff will evaporate off the comet? :insects1: :smiley:

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lunator

lunator

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The clouds cleared away at 10.00pm and the comet was an easy nakes eye object.

I even gotthe missus out to have a look and and she was impressed at the comets brightness.

Throu' the 10x50 the core appeared bright and yellowish

it was surrounded by a pale yellow/cream fuzzy blob.

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G1ZmO

G1ZmO

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Just got back from the cinema with my missus and from the back garden could clearly see the comet as a fuzzy amongst the sharp stars in Perseus

Through the 12" it was very nice. The core certainly looks like it's split in 2.

Showed her the 17P/Holmes, Owl Cluster, Perseus double cluster, Mars and the Pleiades before a large cloud came over.

She was pretty impressed actually :smiley: (for once)

Paul

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G1ZmO

G1ZmO

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The core certainly looks like it's split in 2.

Quote from another of our members:

The Comet did not, after all, split in two last night. Instead, it

seems that the nucleus passed close to a background star.

So it seems I'm wrong hehe

Paul

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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The core certainly looks like it's split in 2.

Quote from another of our members:

The Comet did not, after all, split in two last night. Instead, it

seems that the nucleus passed close to a background star.

So it seems I'm wrong hehe

Paul

Well, that's the question I was asking myself last night. Glad to have it answered. :smiley:

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