Comet 17P/Holmes Peeks Through the Clouds

Hello all, after a painful week of totally cloudy skies, they cleared for just 10 minutes this evening after a well timed trip out the backgarden by chance

After managing to quickly see Comet Holmes through my 15x70mm binoculars, I saw it was HUGE!! I quickly grabbed the SCT and Camera, and snapped this shot widefield...what a sight, it's about 1/3rd the moon's diameter, totally circular, and very diffuse. I put it at about magnitude 3 to the naked eye. Here it is....

Keith..

I'd agree with that magnitude Keith - it's very hazy here in Larne but it's clear enough in the 10x50s - I took this with a 135mm f2.8 stopped down to f4 and 30secs - the fov approximates to view I'm getting through the binos...

Nice shots guys. Plenty of background in there.

Haven't been able to see it myself this evening its been raining since early this evening, but tomorrow nights forecast (from metcheck) is pretty good.
I hope to get a final shot then.
I'd agree with your magnitude estimations based on last nights show. It's dimming and diffusing so now is the time to look out for a more pronounced tail. You never know though it may flare up again.

Barring another flare up I predict this phenomenol show will dissipate rather quickly over the next few days - week.

Nice images lads, they give a great sense of this things size.

Neat images guys. I haven't seen it for 5 nights now (including tonight, dull and overcast all day). These are wetting my appetite even more for clear skies!

they give a great sense of this things size

Rough calculations suggest to me that Holmes is now about the same size as the Sun! Am I making a mistake here??