Comet 17P/Holmes Peeks Through the Clouds

Peeking through the clouds again this morning - getting bigger and fainter though magnitude stays about the same and ideed it still looks brighter to the naked eye due to its size.

Had a good look at this last night in the 20x50 binoculars when the mist eventually cleared. Lovely sight. I showed it to my dad and a few other friends. They were not aware that it is overhead and easily visible - they were pleasantly surprised when they saw it. Couldn't really discern a distinct tail, but I wasn't observing for long.

Hopefully at the weekend I'll take my very first astro photograph - would be a great subject!

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

I reckon thats about right. I checked it in binoculars out last night and was thinking the same. Got back too late lastnight to warrant a set up with the scope and camera etc. Though last night was the clearest for some time.

I saw the comet myself very briefly with my 15x70mm binos in between the clouds last night again, and I think you are right Paul, It is quite large, and now seemingly to me getting fainter visually, but naked eye estimate would be at aboot magnitude 3.2.

Hopefully at the weekend I'll take my very first astro photograph - would be a great subject!

Go for it Brendan...

Keith..

I know there is a wealth of outstanding shots in this thread of Holmes
but I said I'd throw this one on here simply because I'm a bit struck at
how well it turned out.
Not that it's anything to write home about, just that I was fooling around taking widefield shots and I decided to try a quick snap
through the Clubs 12'' Dob using eyepiece projection.
Heres the result.

That's not at all bad for a technique that isn't supposed to work Frank! there's a bit of trailing evident but the subject is well rendered.