New Naked Eye Comet - 17/P Holmes

Right now the comet is looking huge. I noticed it is almost filling the FOV in my 8mm eyepiece. Two days ago it filled approx 40% of the same area
with the same eyepiece.

Go out an look

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society

Just got a couple of shots this evening before cloud rolled in. 4 images stacked ISO100, 30 sec, Canon 350D and Celestron 102SLT.



Heres a series - ongoing with same exposure and settings:

26th Oct:


28th Oct:


2nd Nov:


I think the tail is now becoming more apparent.

Finished for the night, been out 3 hours and clouds are just starting to role in here. Saw comet 17p holmes again to night but trough the telescope this time and looks really cool.

Still gob-smacked at how bright it is for a comet.

Comet is even bigger than before. Got a look through the 16" just now and it is definitely starting to look more like a "typical" comet. One side appears quite fuzzy whilst the other side is sharp and more defined. Could also see faint signs of a tail for approx the same length as the diameter of the main comet itself.
While out observing, got great views of Mars. Polar cap clearly visible as were some of the darker regions on the planet.
Moon was also great. Copernicus was particularly nice, looking deep into the crater centre and seeing the two central peaks.
Also saw the six stars of the trapezium in the centre of M42. Even at 200x, the central region of M42's nebula showed a very obvious mottled effect.

i just made a new acount at picasa so i have a place on the net for my pictures but the pictures are made smaller
shot on 30 oktober 23:00 local time (veendam, the netherlands)

picasaweb.google.com/H.Nieborg/Astrofoto...#5128368559220956658

Nice image! Did I see another recent image from someone else that showed the earth to scale? Or did I dream it...

Dave

Fine image Henk. Nice comparison in scale.

BTW, welcome to the website. Hope you have fun here.