Comet 17P/Holmes Outburst - now naked eye!

[iceman]

I read about an outburst of Comet 17P/Holmes - now naked eye visible at magnitude 3.5!

More information here:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0017P/2007.html

Can Terry or anyone else confirm or provide more information?

Will it be visible for us?

[iceman]

Spaceweather (http://www.spaceweather.com/) is reporting it too..

Looks to be too far in the north at the moment for us :(

[Dennis]

Here we go Mike.

From my SkyTools observation planning and charting software: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

hmm, gets to an altitude of about 5° above my horizon :( You guys in QLD might have better prospects of seeing it.

[CometGuy]

Its true the comet has flared from mag 18 to mag 2.5 over the space of 24 hours! That would be a 1.5 million-fold flare in brightness, easily the largest recorded flare of comet. Its a pity its so low from here (and cloud and rain are forecast). At the moment the comet is being described as like a mag 2.5 nova in Perseus, it looks starlike lthough surely this will change as the dust cloud forming the coma expands..

Comet Holmes is a periodic comet and has been known to flare in the past. In fact it was discovered in 1892, possibly as the result of a major flare. See:

http://www.cometography.com/pcomets/017p.html

Terry

[Outbackmanyep]

hey Guys!
Just been getting reports in now via email!
How much excitement has this stirred!
Pity we may not be able to view it!

[jjjnettie]

They are seeing this comet naked eye at near full moon!!!
Incredible.
Here's hoping that the storms predicts for SEQ tonight are all gone by the time it rises from behind the trees.

[erick]

Well, what do you know! Too low from Melbourne, but I have to go to Darwin this weekend! Just checked - it should be about 20 deg altitude by midnight! Given the Moon, I wasn't going to pack the binoculars. Changed my mind now :D

[citivolus]

I hope we get enough of a break in the clouds tonight for this. It peaks at 12 degrees above the horizon for me. My telescope is going to have to make a rare journey to the front yard for this one.

[Rob_K]

Erick, leave the binoculars and pack me instead! :P Would be a great sight - enjoy your trip, and I expect a full report.....:D

Cheers -

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Tomorrow's APOD image will apparently be related to 17P/Holmes' outburst:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071026.html

[fringe_dweller]

the ol 'headless comet' trick, as the yanks call 'em :) just in time for halloween - weird!

[astroron]

Comet Holmes is 13degs high and 0 deg N at 01:30 from my location which makes it just skirting the top of the hill:(
I will give it a try tonight weather permiting:astron:
It is :cloudy: at the moment, but fingers crossed it will clear up later:

Ron

[h0ughy]

can just see it from the hunter valley - will endeavour to go and find this

[Outbackmanyep]

According to my chart, it should be around 9 degrees above the horizon at 1:30 am.....
Looks like a trip to Walcha Aerodrome for this one!
The comet is quite stellar in appearance and no tail is visible according to reports from the Yahoo comet group, its been measured at mag 2.1 and 3 arc mins in dia. from one observer using CCD equipment, others report that its magnitude has peaked already......

Wish these bloody clouds would go away soon so i can have a look! hehe

[jjjnettie]

A report from D.R.Lunsford.
Well that was the shortest observing session in history. When you
start with the humidity at 98 percent, dew is not far behind. But I
did get an excellent view of it! The comet appeared yellowish and
there were hints of color gradations, I thought I saw a hint of
magenta and green, perhaps flourescence, in the transition area from
the nucleus to the surrounding cloud. The sight was spectacular beyond
words, very eerie, not at all like a typical bright comet. There was
some hint of asymmetry forming in the nucleus, and incipient tail. It
looked like a very bright, out of focus, yellowish globular cluster
more than anything else! I mean it was BRIGHT - the surface brightness
was very high - nearing Saturn in appearence.

[fringe_dweller]

sure is an oddity! and at that distance yikes,
its all good,
for quite a few of the poor buggers in NH havent seen a decent comet in a while ;)

[h0ughy]

bugger them we want to see the darn thing tooo

[astroron]

:rain:It is Hissing down at the moment so it looks like no Comet viewing tonight:(

[ballaratdragons]

Yeah I can't see it either Ron.

I have this stupid Horizon in the way! :lol:

Anyone want a used Horizon. FREE! Take it away!!!

[jjjnettie]

You might have seen this one already if you belong to the StarryNights group.

www.astrobee.000webhost.com/TEMP/Comet-Holmes-smoke-102407-NP127.jpg

[fringe_dweller]

wow! ive seen everything now lol - easy naked np from my light/moon saturated backyard 5d above my local horizon in a gap between trees - easy still around the +2.5 mag mark, naked eye. in binocs orange red in colour, just like reports and photos with, the brighter cc embedded the dimmer outer disc ball about 10 - 20 arcseconds in total size at a guess, in my 8x56 binocs - slightly bigger in the 20x80 binocs

observed clearly and well for nearly an hour

did look a little like a round red planetary nebulae, like some have described it

man we have had some weird comets in recent years - SW3/ great comet/ 2 naked eye comets at same time more than a few times, all sorts, makes the previous decades seem tame!

[Mick]

I was able to view this beautiful comet at 2:00 am using 20x80 binos. What an amazing sight very different. it has no visible tail but with a near full moon I didn't expect to see one. It is like all reported observations, planet like with a yellowish colour a very easy naked eye object to view even with strong moon light. I snapped the attached photo with my trusty coolpix.

[iceman]

Amazing, thanks for the reports and images!

[Alchemy]

mmmm. that horizons aproblem. Not only that its clouded out down here.

I asume that its not breaking up into pieces, so what is the suspected cause of this event, what is this comets make up icy, rocky?. and the obvious how long will it last ..... wouldnt it be awesome if it just completely fragmented.

im sure someone out there has looked into this........details please

[h0ughy]

clearing weather this weekend for NSW anyway. hope to make something of this, just haveto find a suitable horizon with as little or no light pollution. Fantastic image Mick

[fringe_dweller]

well the reports keep rollin in on the ml - a quick attempt at a summary and cherry pick of some posts by people like JBortle/A Hale and their take on it.
seems brightness steady/ still no tail/ last time it did this in 1892 at a similar distance (and came to be discovered) the outer coma eventually expanded to about .5d!! also last time it held its brightness at these levels for 2 or 3 weeks! and then underwent another smaller outburst around two months later.
as for composition/ i read a suggestion/loose theory from JBortle that structure could be honeycombed and its just a large sinkhole formed/ no danger to survival as it did the same over a hundred years ago, and is still around :)

[fringe_dweller]

apparently also a very nice visual telescopic object, which only about half of all comets are at some stage, IMO - will get the scope out tonight if sky clear - I was unprepared last night, didnt think i would be able to see it from here so well! yet another NE comet notch on the eyeballs :) i think its 15 or 16 ne comets for me now - they're adding up!

[astroron]

It only reaches 13degs high from here and I have a 15deg hill just were it is, so it looks like I might have to go for a little drive:)

[sheeny]

Hmmm... too much cloud here and the horizon's not good... I think I'll go to Vancouver tomorrow and see what the view is like from there!;):D

I'm off to Canada tomorrow for 3 weeks so I best try to have a look at it while I'm there.:thumbsup: if I can get some clear skies - I gather they get a fair bit of rain this time of year there, but I'll do my best!;)

Al.

[jjjnettie]

A nice image by Rock Mallin, taken in Ottawa Canada. Truely shows it's Planetary neb like appearance.
http://mallincam.tripod.com/id36.html

[Liz]

Geeze. go on holidays to Victoria, and a comet appears that sounds very viewable from FNQ. How exciting though.

[Phil]

This is a classic because my name is P Holmes. Have not seen the comet yet but.
Phil

[CometGuy]

Kearn,

We've really had a great run of comets in the last decade and a bit! When I began comet observing in late 1980 it seemed an eternity between decent comets, in fact I used to get excited at anything brighter than mag 8 :)

These days there seems to be decent comet nearly every year. By decent I mean clearly visible to the naked eye (mag 3 or so or better). If we miss getting seeing one in one year, we just get 2 the following year like this year. And what a unique event 17P is at the moment, it would problably be centuries before anyone witnesses a mega-outburst of this scale.

Terry

[CometGuy]

Amazingly I saw the comet with the naked eye tonight from Brisbane despite it being down amongst the scat cloud (there was an active thunderstorm just to the east). Very obvious and bright in binoculars. Here is full size crop from a single 1.6 second shot with 350D + 200mm lens at f3.5 + ISO400 (pushed nearly a stop in post processing). Gives you an idea how in looked in large binoculars.

Terry

[Outbackmanyep]

Hey guys!
Just got back from the airstrip, i managed to view the comet and also get some afocal images through the 10" f/5 dob using 40mm eyepiece. Im really glad i got that Canon 400D, so easy on objects like this, 2 seconds @ ISO 1600 and its almost how the eye see's this comet...
Much like yours above Terry! Great shot!
Will post an image when i download them off the camera later today sometime!
Comet is about 6 or 7 degrees above my horizon now.....easily seen with naked eye!

Naked eye in full moonlight too, awesome!
What a year for comets!

:cheers:

[Outbackmanyep]

I know how you feel FD....i had 70 emails in my list this morning!
Did you see Seichii Yoshidas light curve?? :thumbsup:



Won't be as exciting to general community though, they wanna see a huge flaming tail!
The amateur and professional scene is quite abuzz, part of the reason why i love comets is that they're so unpredictable and a wonderful sight to see when they display themselves!:thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

If that image is correct in what we see in it, then its definitely a catastrophic break up of some kind....
Normally outbursts are attributed to physical nucleus break-up......

[astroron]

I observed the comet through a gap in the clouds at 01:30 with 7x50 bino's looks like an out of focus star.
Now complerely clouded out:(

[citivolus]

All clouds here again :(

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Terry,

nice shot and obs!

Its been a special time to be a bright comet enthuisiast, agreed mate! :) I guess you could say, at a stretch, this era all kicked off with SL9/Jupiter event in '94, and has wound up from there to present levels of interesting comet action!?
plus throw in the comet & asteroid probes/ and space observatories like SOHO ect./and internetBB-puters/+ cheap amazing gear and I would have to say definitely 'we have never had it better'!

[shahgazer]

I've managed to observe to comet tonight, when the sky finally clears up a bit. It was an easy naked-eye comet, I estimate it to be somewhat equal in brightness with delta Per.

Through binoculars is something else. It was really big, bright and yellowish blob! No way anyone can mistaken it with normal pin-point stars. I didn't get the chance to view through the telescope, waiting in a couple of hours till it reach the meridian.

Got a couple of images using Canon 300D DSLR.

http://www.falak-online.net/myportal/images/shah17pholmes26oct2007.jpg

http://www.falak-online.net/myportal/images//big17pholmes26oct2007.jpg

[fringe_dweller]

my northern horizon suffered from high clouds tonight, but could still see 17P ne, as a fuzzy star, reasonably easy most of the time! while the only other star visible in that area was alpha persei! binocs still again showed colour but not much outer coma.

[fringe_dweller]

i did see the graph OBMY :lol: its insane! LOL
have you seen the pics comin thru c-images? man o man!
got to love those digital cameras for this stuff, look forward to pics! - only wish we were getting the so-called visual 3D 'pearl' effect as good as those guys with it overhead :) some pics i have seen, really show it well

[fringe_dweller]

well caught, nice one Shah! enjoyed obs report too :) how big are you seeing outer coma? i have read reports of being it up too 3 arcminutes in dia. when high overhead in NH!?

[citivolus]

Woohoo, success at only 6 degrees above the horizon. The clouds finally cleared out for me, and left me with a great view through my 15x70 binoculars. Nice colour to this one.

[Outbackmanyep]

These are some of the images i took last night, the close-up photo's were taken through my 10" dob afocally using a 40mm plossl eyepiece and Canon 400D, 2 second exposures @ ISO 1600.....the lighter one was taken lower down on the horizon and i had to brighten the image a little.
The wider angle shots show my Hilux and the 10" dob set up, the comet is.....if you imagine the triangle of stars above the scope its the bottom right "star".
These images were taken at 400 ISO and are 8 seconds each, slightly adjusted for brightness.

All pics taken from Walcha Aerodrome @ around 1 am, 27/10/07.

Cheers!
:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

I wonder, if 17P Holmes has in fact been in a collision, has it been nudged into an orbit that will make it a Sun grazer and give us an even more spectacular display?
It's was a short period comet before the collision, will it still be one now?

[Outbackmanyep]

If it has been involved in a collision it must have hit a massive speed bump!
Non-gravitational effects will surely alter its orbit but how much won't be noticed until further astrometry is made, i doubt it could end up a sungrazer though as its orbit is low in eccentricity and has a perihelion distance of 2.1 AU, its period is 6.88 years.
Time will tell though, if its orbit has changed it may affect the perihelion date for its next return.....

Maybe Loomberah (Gordon) could elaborate on this further!?

Cheers! :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

nice images guys!! dang this cloud

[Shawn]

I might have a go at that one, should get a good shot at it from here. What are the other two stars in the triangle called, Im still bumbling around the heavens...

:)

[Outbackmanyep]

The comet is in Perseus, the top star is Delta Persei and it is mag 3.02, the star to the left is Mirfak or Alpha Persei and its mag 1.81.

:cheers:

[cookie8]

Will comet Holmes stay in Perseus at new moon? I mean will it be more favourable for southern hemisphere later on?:screwy:

[jjjnettie]

Some images taken by Bart Declercq.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/message/12958

[Outbackmanyep]

This comet will slowly end up in the northern hemisphere unfortunately, its inclination is 19 degrees to the ecliptic....
This link will demonstrate the orbit better than i can explain!
The objects circle in anti-clockwise motion, and north is up, but you can fiddle with the sliders and see it from different perspectives!

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17P%2F+Holmes&orb=1

Cheers!

PS....Mark down this date....Dec 31st.. 2050, if you go to that date on the Orbit diagram in the link above it comes very close to Jupiter! That is of course if it doesn't change its habits between now and then!

[MortonH]

Just saw the comet from South Head in Sydney. Was surprised at just how large and bright it was through 7x50 binoculars. Took my ZS80 as well but it didn't really show much extra detail. In fact, I preferred the binocular view as I think the wide field gave a much better impression of the comet's size.

Morton

[Gargoyle_Steve]

I've just walked outside and onto the footpath (my back yard is very tree lined to the north) - even from there I'm looking towards a nearly full moon and about half a dozen sodium vapour lamps along the central divide island, all made worse by the fact that the atmosphere has a "high vapour" look to it.

I was rating my chances as pretty slim of seeing this comet, but I had a rough idea where I was looking, figured it had to be "near" that star just to the side of the trees opposite.... put my tiny 10x32 bino's to my eyes to start scanning that area ....

Yes, you guessed it, that "star" was in fact the comet! Through the little binos it's pretty clear that the real stars are all pinpoints whereas Comet Holmes is definitely a smudge-ball!

Debating now whether to take the 20x80's out, or the ETX-70 for more magnification but less light gathering ability ... or dammit should I just drag the dob out onto the neighbours driveway! :P

[h0ughy]

well this crappy shot was very much Spur of the moment stuff, I fell asleep in the chair waiting for this. I had every intention of getting the scope out and driving to a location with a northern horizon. But I was buggered after a big day, and we are now in daylight savings and only just moved the clock forward 1 hour, and paid for it i am pretty tired this morning.
I quickly got the 400D and a cushion from the lounge room and set it up on the front veranda. LOL well at least I can say I found it, not that I could see it with the light pollution and the full moon. If it is clear tonight I know where to look.:whistle::lol:

[Phil]

Took these last night with 30D 17-85mm lens. Comet naked eye and very low.
Could not find the comet at first because it is lower then i thought. Got the My-sky out and found it within 5sec.In Binoculars comet looks like a big fuzzy star. Very cool.
Phil

[h0ughy]

Its interesting Phil, have a look at the rotation difference between your shot and mine with that triangle of stars, shows what a difference the latitude makes.

[Phil]

Yes very intesterting and a lovely shot by you Houghy. It is very low.
Phil

[Outbackmanyep]

This is the comet from my images last night, with my own eyes i could see a "false" nucleus, like a bright star in the center, with the bell shaped central condensation and outer coma, but looking at my images i notice a dark ring inside the outer coma and some images look like it has a split nucleus! The full resolution off the camera image shows the split better, or it could be an artifact!

Taken prime focus through my Celestron 8" SCT @ f/10
This image has not been processed at all......90 sec @ ISO 200

Take a look!

:)

[tornado33]

Hi
heres a view from early this morning, from my front yard at Wallsend. Can clearly see it between tree trunk and powerpole
6x2 sec 50mm f1.8 untracked but stacked and aligned on comet with IRIS

For high res 10 inch telescope image go here
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=25306


What an incredible object. What an incredible year. Starts with Mcnaught bursting to daylight visibility, and even co inciding with the IIS Lostock astrocamp putting on a super display. Quiet times from then till now an obscure small comet super outbursts to over a millionfold in brightness. Wow its all happening.
Scott

[gaa_ian]

:eyepop:... What rock have I been under for the last few days ?
Here I am in prime position in the NT and had not been taking much notice.
I will be out there tonight for a first look !
Just before the full moon rises on Tuesday the 30th at 10:30pm, will be the first dark sky opportunity.
Lets hope it holds it brightness !

[jjjnettie]

It's not an artifact. I was playing with images today, finally got a stack of 53 happening, and the nucleus is a definate arrow head, pointing down.:thumbsup:
I'll post my new improved image in Solar System thread.

[saberscorpx]

28OCT07 0300UT 40N90W

Thru 20x80s Holmes looks more like a supernova than a comet. Currently about 4 deg ENE of Mirphak, the circular and cream-colored 2.5 mag oddity easily punches through our gibbous moon's interference. 8x40s nicely frame 17P and Mel 20 in the same field.
The outer halo and naked eye fuzziness, however, would be greatly enhanced in a moonless sky.

A well deserved medal for our Hero.


SJS

[fringe_dweller]

awesome shots and obs everybody! what as sight!

dont take this to heart, its just an opinion piece, and as they say we all have them (opinions) ;)
strangely? i could be imagining this!, but i feel an unspoken pressure to provide photographic evidence of my obs? its seems de rigeur? but after having taken a personal oath/resolution and undertaking in swearing off and personally participating in the time consuming digital astrophotography game, or least a long sabbatical till the next solar max :) (I havent recharged my 350d batteries since P1! in feb) as i currently find it, from a purely *personal* involvement level to be a fun spoiler these days. Plus I have much more important bigger GAS issues right now tho LOL.
And I am undergoing a return to my 'roots' AA wise, and just do it for the eyeballin existentialist and satori-like 'crac' and removing myself from the technology and GAS treadmill drudgery that I now find astrophotography to be, as the new 'be all and end all' of AA.
I find it sad the 'romance' of the writtem obs to be a dying art form, an art form that was developed over many centuries! the likes of which J . Bortle and D. Seargent so eloquently do, as I equally enjoy reading a quality descriptive obs as seeing a great image of something momentous. and my personal written records come first and foremost to me, and images can be rather impersonal and cold IMO sometimes.
Dont get me wrong, I would be deeply dissappointed and distressed if there wasnt the current crop of the plethora of awesome imagers to admire/inspire wonder and reveal previously unseen things and expanding our universal collective knowledge, not to mention cherrypick from their pics for my obs folder, as visual reminders of my obs!
also not to mention
when I/we started this hobby astrophotograhers were quite rare, and that was part of the attraction and motivation i think.
so there got that off my chest, but due to this new modern digital era horrible and suffocating expectation that one must have top shelf photographic evidence of everything they see and do, I felt I had explain myself!
this thread may not be the place to open up this way, in a fast food and time poor world, its tooo many words!

[tornado33]

Going to get up at 1:40 am (daylight saving time) tommorow despite having work tomorrow morning to see what surprises this comet has in store, will set up the 10 inch again.
Some sleepless mornings await me while Holmes keep putting on this spectacle :)
Scott

[Rob_K]

Sorry Kearn, didn't get past the first sentence - it's tooo many words! :P ;)

But I think the apparent lack of good observational reporting doesn't mean it's not going on. Probably an illusion created by the nature of these forums, bit like show-&-tell, a picture's worth a thousand words, etc, lol. There's a couple of guys (DougAdams & §AB) who are keeping it alive in the "obs report" sub-section, and they probably could do with a bit of a hand.

Love the pictures because they usually show more detail than you can visually observe, but love the reports too because they convey a real sense of your experience at the eyepiece, in a way that images never can. They can also convey a sense of excitement, discovery & achievement (and disappointment on occasions :lol:).

Anyway, love the Holmes pics folks - thanks to all from one who will probably not get to see it (damn latitude!).:(

Cheers -

[gaa_ian]

Slow moving High Cloud has stopped any observing tonight here in Gove.
Aw .... well :shrug: maybe tomorrow night
Update: I went and tried again with the 16 x 60 Bino's, it was a snap:thumbsup:
This is one bright comet, I could even see it through the veil of high cloud !

[astroron]

Still:cloudy:so no:astron:tonight:(:(

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Rob,
sorry, I was specifically referring to the fate of formalised/standardised and informal comet obs/descriptions, probably an even more endangered beastie than some other forms?, altho closely related in terminology and origins I guess - but i salute them nonetheless! I have Hartungs book, great example of the 'old school' descriptive methods :)

anyway its all good mate :D I still really enjoy looking at great astro pics, but just not as big a fan of taking them and processing them myself thesedays LOL altho i did used to love doing it, and will again someday most probably

[fringe_dweller]

nice spot to be viewing 17P from Ian! lucky so and so! cheers for report! :thumbsup:

its starting to clear up here after a few days of welcome and overdue rains and showers/ clouds just too heavy on my horizon, despite holes everywhere

[tornado33]

was raining here in Newcastle :(
Oh well will try again tomorrow morning
Scott

[iceman]

Scott where do you observe it from? What's the best time to see it? I'm thinking of making a trip North for it.

[h0ughy]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=33876&d=1193534200 from his front yard Mike! probably could do it from our swamp LOL, you need to get some elevation to clear most of suburbia, is there anywhere with a nice hill looking north near you?

[Garyh]

I always thought it was too low for us down here but after looking at this thread its seems defiantly worth the effort of getting up early..been too cloudy last night, I shall give it a go tonight? I have a great northerly view!

Like what Mike mentions what time in the morning would be best to view it?
cheers Gary

[Outbackmanyep]

The best time i can see it is from about 1am to 4am now with daylight saving attached......

Hope the hunt goes well....
Check BOM satellite images, it looks like the rain band has subsided but todays image isnt up yet.

[Outbackmanyep]

Interesting image on this link :
http://www.birtwhistle.org/Gallery17P.htm

[ving]

wahh! too far south :(

[tornado33]

Yep just from my front yard, bout a 30 degree arc centred on due north between houses and trees where I can see down to the N Horizon.

Awful forecast next 2 days though :(

Forecast for Monday
Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Moderate to fresh and gusty northwest winds ahead of a late southwest change along the coast.
Fire danger: Locally Very High


Newcastle: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Max: 32
Gosford: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Max: 29
Maitland and Cessnock: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Max: 33
Scone: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Max: 30
Singleton: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Max: 33

Forecast for Tuesday
Isolated showers and thunderstorms, chiefly in the afternoon. Light winds tending east to northeast.


Newcastle: Shower or two. Chance thunderstorm. Min: 17 Max: 29

Scott

[tornado33]

I should add, to be precise, tomorrow the comet as seen from Newcastle rises at 23:37 tonight, transits at 02:15 am where it will be 6 degrees up, setting at 4:53am. It moves quite slowly westeards, not moving very far in the next week.
Scott

[erick]

Go North, young man!!

OK, I'm back at my desk after a weekend in Darwin, yes, latitude 12 deg S! :jump2: 17P/Holmes cannot hide below the horizon from there!

Well, it did its best to hide behind the cloud. Build-up time is underway in the NT. Saturday evening - clouded out. But Sunday evening - promising....

Full moon, a thin haze and low cloud to the horizon make it a struggle. Add Darwin's skyglow and I really was struggling to understand the sky. My planisphere (set for 35 deg S) is a bit of a guide. Started looking around 10:30pm local time, up at Lee Point, north of the city. Plenty of Moonlight behind hazy cloud (the Moon rose very red in colour and progressed through yellow over 90 min). Cannot pick out stars below the Moon. Where's Capella? Agonise for a while. :sadeyes:

It finally clears above the Moon and I pick out Pegasus and Andromeda. I have my 12x60s with me. Can just pick out the smudge of M31, but not good enough to show those who came with me to see the comet. OK, I entertain them with views of the Moon, the belt of Orion, a faint M42 and Aldalbaran. Give up and go back to the city after I still cannot make out any stars below and to the north of the Moon - still hazy, but Capella should be visible??
Packing to leave on the 1:30am (:scared:) flight. I leave the binoculars outside in the heat and humidity. (I learnt not to carry binoculars from air-conditioned room into outside heat/humidity and expect to use them immediately :rolleyes:).

Back out at midnight, look NNE down the street, clouds have cleared, and between the trees, there it is! :eyepop: 17P/Holmes just jumps out and grabs you! It's up around some 20 deg in elevation and is a bright distinctive orange fuzzball. I was seeing it with bright orange (sodium?) street lights framing the view, yet it was very distinctive. I put the 12x60s on the job and they didn't give me much more information, in fact I had to deal with substantial internal reflections/flaring from the street lights in the view. :mad2:

I only had about 10 min to look and to show everyone else. I was able to locate Capella lower in the sky, and though I'm not much good at estimating magnitudes, especially for different coloured objects, I reckoned there wasn't much difference.

However it was the colour that struck me - very orange. I did wonder whether it was the effect of some low haze that had made the Moon so red before, but 17P/Holmes was at a reasonable elevation now and Capella, which was lower, was white.

So there it is! Most exciting. I will try from Melbourne, but it will be a challenge. Some 2-3 deg elevation around 2:30am (daylight saving time? - I've lost track, having been in NT, Qld and Vic in a period of 12 hrs!)

Thanks for all the reports and photos - this could be good fun for a while yet.

Eric :)

[tornado33]

Excellent report erick.
Prospects for the comet staying bright look good

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html

Future prospects. The comet is likely to stay bright for many days or weeks. The yellow-white color is dust reflecting sunlight, as confirmed by the spectra that have been taken. Dust is what keeps a comet bright — as opposed to gas (comet gas is green and blue), which blows away quickly in the solar wind. Also, the brilliant stellar nucleus and the inner-coma fan suggest that the nucleus is still producing dust. This comet won't fade out soon.

Any tail will probably be short and stubby when, or if, it forms. The tail should be pointing nearly away from us in space — we're looking down its length — since the comet is nearly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. From the comet's viewpoint, the Earth and Sun are only about 15° apart, and this phase angle will stay small for many months. So we'll keep looking down the tail.

[RB]

Excellent info Scott, thank you !!!

BTW Congratulations on getting you image on SpaceWeather (http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/27oct07/Scott-Alder1.jpg)

[Blue Skies]

I, too, was successful last night in spotting it. I thought I'd better
make the effort to see it after seeing person after person going "wow!
wow!" everywhere on the net. Had the alarm set for 1.50am but got up at
1.30am instead and crept outside. I didn't have to go far from the
front veranda to catch it in a gap in the trees to the north of me.
Once I'd seen it in the binos and I realised I could see it easily naked
eye - even with that bright moon nearby! Will be interesting to see it
when the moon is less of a problem, which it will no doubt have changed
appearance by then anyway. (on reading above I don't recall seeing any colour - that could have been because it is low to the horizon for me)

While I was standing outside it struck me that there must be quite a few
people, especially newcomers to the hobby, that must be wondering what
the fuss is all about. Having watched comets brighter than mag 10 for
over a decade now even I have to say this is something out of the
ordinary in comet behaviour. While I have seen a number of faint,
diffuse fuzzy balls without tails, some of them even naked eye too,
none of them have been this bright. None of them have brightened up so
quickly! And none of them would have been easy naked eye under a full
moon!! This makes comet Holmes something extraordinary and worthy of
the attention it is receiving. While not everyone will get a thrill out
of getting out of a warm bed at an awkward hour of the night to see yet
another fuzzy ball, I think a sense of perspective of circumstances of
this event will probably make it a little easier.

Now if it will just grow a nice tail...!

[Outbackmanyep]

Ok, last nights NBN news said "thunderstorms" every afternoon this week....well its clear and not a cloud out there now, scope is set up awaiting 17P's arrival!

[Outbackmanyep]

Hopefully you'll get to see a nice tail attached to F1 LONEOS later in the week! :thumbsup:

[Blue Skies]

Yes, looking forward to that one! Our local comet expert is making sure we have all the details. :astron:

[circumpolar]

Checked out the comet this morning at 2am and was very impressed. I had read somewhere that visually it appears as bis as Jupiter but to my eye it appears many many times bigger! Bright centre surrounded by a giant fuzzy orb. Cool. I hope it is still as bright in about a weeks time when the moon rises after 2am.

[saberscorpx]

Our orbit will be carrying us closer to Holmes' exhaust pipe for another week or so (yes, we're actually gaining on it).
As we change trajectories it could show some tail.


SJS

[fringe_dweller]

just to prove i can see it from my backyard at 34.83 south this is the furthest south pic yet to my knowledge - clouds ruined it again, but i did get a clearish patch after it had passed it highest point for me, too much moisture/vapour in the air from recent rains - unlike the awesome conditions i had late last week on friday morning - 17P is circled - damn comet made me break my vows of photo celibacy ggrrr
1 sec shot iso 400 50mm lens 350D - checkout the LP i have to put up with - double grrrr :P

[iceman]

lol thanks Kearn, I needed that proof ;)

I've gotta get out and look for it this week!

[Rob_K]

Sorry Kearn, I'll need a Stat Dec with that - you know what they say, there's lies, damn lies, and digital photography... Or is that statistics? :P ;)

Nice shot though - glad you can see it, even if it is low! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[cookie8]

From 33.46S I was able to spot it last night. Set alarm clock for 2:30am. Took me a good 5 mins to find it in my frontyard. Not familiar with that patch of sky. :( Moon & street lights didn't help either. I was looking too high. Gee... it was low,real low, no more than 5 degree I would say. Looks like a BIG globular in my 10X50 but no yellowish color seen. Happy with another one under my belt. :rofl:

[Garyh]

Got out of bed about 1.30am but couldn`t see it for a while as a large band of cloud was sitting to the north..By 2.00 am was nearly gone and then spotted, barely visible to my naked eye and like Cokkie8 mentions looked very much a bright Globular cluster slightly brighter in the centre. Looked a slight muddy color to me between the binos fogging up!!..:thumbsup:
Took a dozen quick shots with the canon 300D and 200mm lense..This one is about the best of them.:). Shall get some closeups tonight weather permitting!
Cheers Gary

[iceman]

Wow that's high up Gary, I might have to drive to your place tonight :)

[Garyh]

You would be most welcomed to drop by Mike!..:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Well it is a once in a lifetime event that needed to be photographed for posterity.
So long as you didn't enjoy taking the photo, and you feel guilty afterwards it's all good.;)

[tornado33]

Great shot Gary, shows its large size there.
It was evident in my binoculars this morning, sky was actually worse then on Sunday morning in Newcastle, a southerly had come through bringing in moisture, leaving the sky hazy and bright in the moonlight, but was still easy to see, has grown bigger and more diffuse
Scott

[cookie8]

Great shot Gary! It was high even for your latitude! I might have to get up earlier to see it at its highest. Is 2am the best time?

:hi:

[tornado33]

Looks like it is holding its brightness well

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/icq/CometMags.html#0017P

No real change from late on the 24th till now
Scott

[vja4Him]

I just found comet Holmes, after searching the sky and waiting for clouds to clear below Cassiopia. We had thunderstorms all around us!!! After a beautiful sunset, with clear skies on either side of the sky, but very dark storm clouds rolled in .... then rain ... then clouds started leaving around 7:30, and at about 8:05, I found comet Holmes!!!

Wow, what a trip!! The last comet I saw was comet Hyakutake in early 1997 from Modesto, California. We watched comet Hyakutake for several days.

I'm using my old Bushnell binoculars, 12x50. I can just barely make out the faint comet Holmes with my naked eye, but with the binoculars I can see a large fuzzy ball, very obviously a comet!! I showed my neighbor the comet and he found it. My little boy, 10 years old, also got to see the comet. He could see the comet much better than I can with his naked eyes.

I'm glad that I didn't give up!! I worked graveyard Sunday night, and have been up all day with no sleep. It has been a challenge to stay up all day. I was tempted to go to bed, like I usually do, before dark, and sleep all the way through until Tuesday. I would have missed the comet for sure ....

[RB]

Wow what a great shot Gary, gives a really nice perspective.

:thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

FYI if anyone saw spots in the coma last night they were due to background stars.....i stayed up watching a program about comets and the moon on Austar last night, had my scope all set-up, then by the time the comet come up there was a storm raging up in Armidale somewhere and i got pummelled by very fast low flying cloud from that direction, i managed to get about 30x 30 second images as i couldnt locate a guidestar in the radial guider so i kept the exposures short, the low cloud was moving really fast above the treetops and i didnt feel the slightest breeze at ground level!!
The comet is now about 20' dia according to some reports, according to estimates from people on comets-ml the coma dia will spread to 50' by the end of november!!
Cheers!

[Neil Dwiar]

I haven't been on for a while, anyone know if Holmes is visible from Adelaide?

[Garyh]

Thanks Scott, last night the transparancy was good. Looks good so far today though s little more hazy..
By the way your latest closeup is real nice! :thumbsup:



Thanks Cookie8, yeah I would say about 2am - 2.30am would be about the best time slot..
cheers



cheers Andrew! :)

When I comet is naked eye it seems to get me rather excited these days..:D

Kearn is down in S.A and has a pic to prove it Neil. It would be very low for you but..
cheers everyone

[tornado33]

Thanks Gary
According to Star Atlas Pro, tomorrow morning as seen from Newcastle the comet will transit (be at its highest) at 2:15 am. Bad weather is forecast after that so might make the effort to get up again tomorrow morning.
Scott

[fringe_dweller]

no worries Mike, happy hunting mate, you should get it easy :)



Thanks Rob :) - I was thinkin it wasnt very convincing lookin proof after all that :lol: wheres that damn airbrush button again :P
i have to make a correction the southernmost shot i have seen was from dave herald of canberra at 35.1 S or so, last w/e! those feisty canberreans are always tough competition with me at this shared lat.!



very true! i just laid back and thought pure clean thoughts of the flag/country JJ :D Im glad i got something last night, lookin at the weather for next few days!! :sadeyes:

[fringe_dweller]

sure is Neil, you need a pretty fine true dead northern horizon, as i think it around 4d from true horizon, good thing is, being as far away as it is, it appears to move very slowly thru constellations position wise - last week when the weather was good, it was about an easy object to see as you could possibly get! i was very surprised how well it could be seen.
check out the 'assassin from the north' - this is bright comet/event weather it is dry and clear for months, and then BANG right on cue you get one of these monsters - every single time without fail! :help: makes a grown man cry, and i dont want to cry anymore (sounds like a song) - they should call this the 'crying game' not astronomy

[tornado33]

Yep I was just going to mention the bad news re cloud satellite, I will set my alarm still but have a feeling I will be going right back to bed after confirming its cloudy
Scott

[[1ponders]]

WooHoo!! Finally got to see it. :cool: Wow what a wierd looking comet. I took off to my favorite northern horizon viewing spot at 9:30 tonight and by 10:00 it was wall to wall clouds. Headed home in disgust. Popped the head outside at 11:15 and it was as clear as a bell. Fantastic transparency now!

Now to wade through a "few" images :P

[[1ponders]]

First cab of the rank for tonight. This is one of the later captures as the comet was heading towards the Meridian.

11/4sec shots @ f/2.0 @ ISO1600. 135mm lens and Canon 300D. Dark subtracted and aligned in Images Plus, slight contrast adjustment in PS to deal with moon pollution. The image was aligned on the comet so there is a slight misalignment with the stars in the image.

[saberscorpx]

Pete Lawrence caught the beginnings of some tail:

http://spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/29oct07/Pete-Lawrence1.jpg


SJS

[Garyh]

Nice shot Paul! glad the clouds have parted just in time...
didn`t that cloud band move in quickly last night...got up 1.30am but way too much low cloud.
Good to hear that a tail is developing , maybe by the time the moon is out of the way we might be rewarded with a glimpse!
cheers

[DJVege]

Awesome shots so far.

Unfortunately, I got out early last night, 9.30pm, to get a bit of "sky study" done while waiting for the comet. The comet was supposed to rise just after 9.30, but as there are trees and a slight hill behind me, I figured it would be midnight before I could see anything.

So, I found some constellations, Pleides sisters, and worked on some parts of the sky that I didn't know....and of course, after a fairly clear day, around 10pm, clouds were drifting in the from the SE. At midnight, clouds almost fully covered the sky! :mad2: I mean seriously....RAIN, OR NICK OFF!!!!!!!! (Yes, I wanted to use another word instead of "nick").

Oh well, there's always tonight! :)

Keep those photos coming! They might be the only view I get of this comet the way things are going!!

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for posting the widefield shots Gary and Paul. It gives the perspective of the naked eye view.

A view that we probably will never see out here given the cloud cover we have had for almost two weeks IT'S SO FRUSTRATING :mad2::mad2::mad2:

[jjjnettie]

Taken last night with the Gstar-Ex camera through the 10" Dob, no tracking.
44 frames stacked in Registax. Senseup 32x.

Is anyone else getting onion rings within the coma? Or am I over processing?

[Garyh]

Excellent shot Jeanette!...:thumbsup:
I think that onion skin look may be real as Scotts images show a similar look.
Nice work!!

[h0ughy]

excellent work JJJ, if you look at ANTO's images he has processed it to highlight those

[RB]

Great images Paul and Jeanette.

I like the widefield view taken with the 135mm Paul.

Glad you got some good weather at last.

[jjjnettie]

Here we go.
Same image as before, but I pumped up the levels and curves to bring out the onion skin thing.

[davewaldo]

Nice work Jeanette! :)

I might try and view this one tonight if the weather holds.

[Liz]

Great pics all, well done. Am yet to see it due to cloud and probable low latitude in Bendigo, but found this nice animation.

http://www.myslooh.com/data/members/8919/1193695637.gif

[fringe_dweller]

yep very nice Paul and Jeanette :thumbsup::thumbsup: glad you finally got a squiz at this one, and love the sub-tropical viewers feel to yours paul, the palm fronds really set it off :) great souvinir!

[[1ponders]]

Wait til you see the next one Kearn. Shot between the power lines and the exhaust duct of the bowls club next door :lol: Ya take what you can get.

[fringe_dweller]

:rofl: look forward to it Paul! it'll be like one of my recent shots mate! lol gritty realism? :shrug: :P

[saberscorpx]

A dance with Melotte 20 and close swing at Mirfak is on tap for November as Holmes' path turns southwest:

http://shopplaza.nl/astro/comets/17PCH01.png


SJS

[jjjnettie]

It's on YouTube too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpUf19AbJH8
Watch it get bigger over 3 days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exs0ZQahreA
See it cross the sky!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5ve1GpMck

[jjjnettie]

Interesting link
http://www.cloudbait.com/gallery/comet/holmes.html

Gotta love the name of the observatory.

[DJVege]

Hopefully clear skies tonight and tomorrow night!!

* rubs hands together feverishly *

I'll finally get to see the comet!!!!!!!!!!

[vash]

I'm with you on this one, I'd love to see it or try and get a picture of it my self

[fringe_dweller]

in answer to enquiries of the tail situ - this morning i saw a mind blowing stretched deeeeeep image posted by the legendary Michael Jaeger on ml, edit:found a link

http://cometography.com/pcomets/017p.html

[DJVege]

Wow!! That's amazing!!!

Well, as predicted, there are scattered clouds (hazey) tonight, which is great because I can actually make out stars!!! :)

Now, guess which patch of sky the clouds are currently covering? Any takers?

Well, IF YOU GUESSED THE WHOLE NORTH, NORTH EAST PATCH OF SKY, YOU'VE JUST WON THE MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE!!!! :(

Fineprint: There is no million dollar prize!!

[MMys]

I was imaging this comet 31.10.2007 by Vixen VC200L VISAC Cassegrain (200/1800mm) and 6Mpix QHY8 color CCD Camera. Scope was mounted on EQ6 and off-axis guided on star by my TVGuider. Motion of comet is slow and guiding on star is not broblem. I tried to create composition that visualizes all components of this spectacular comet. On the image you can see outer C2 band emission coma (greenish) and inner dust coma, with enhanced structure of jets. I took 15x3min images for inner coma and 4x10min images for better appearance of outer faint coma and convert them together throuh HDR merge method. Inner coma structures were enhanced using Larson-Sekanina rotational gradient and inserted back to original image. (note: Zdenek Sekanina is native of Czech - http://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Sekanina/ ). Images were taken about 12 km south of 100 thousand city Hradec Kralove at east of Czech Republic.

I'm not able to take next images, because there is cloudy now, and forecast looks badly for next day. If I'll have clears sky at comming days, will try to catch faint ion tail too, which this comet have, using fast newtonian astrograph.

Below you can see both native and enhanced look to comet.

http://foto.astronomy.cz/images/17PHolmes_31_10_2007.jpg

http://foto.astronomy.cz/images/17PHolmes_31_10_2007_enh.jpg

Full resolution images here:
http://foto.astronomy.cz/AstroForum/17PHolmes_norma.jpg (http://foto.astronomy.cz/AstroForum/17PHolmes_enhanced.jpg)
http://foto.astronomy.cz/AstroForum/17PHolmes_enhanced.jpg

[h0ughy]

Fantastic images Martin, you guys are lucky to be in the box seat this time around.:thumbsup::)

[Garyh]

Some great images from the north guys! good to see the comet is still performing well..
A lot of us in eastern Australia will be clouded out for some days to come :(

[Ingo]

How is this not coming at us?

[GrahamL]

Well I got to see it last night and it is sure something to see :)

Picked the wife up from work and noticed when arriveing home that most of the sky to the north had cleared.. I hadn't a clue were to look as the rain and cloud this week has been pretty full on .A quick look on the net and its pretty easy to find..Starting in taurus with aldebaran three bright stars
line up as you drop down towards the northern horizen into
perseus, the california nebula nearby is the only object I recall looking at down this way before.. a smallish triangle can be made of the three stars down there , the comet being the one to the east if i remember right.. looking into my finder with a 13 mm nagler this object is already pretty impressive .. drop in a 28 mm for 46x in my 10" and it almost fills the view ,very impressive sight . I hope you guys down south get a shot at this one
even as it transits here its still fairly low in the north .. My northern horizen is fairly clean
and it didn't really become easily visible until aroun 1.30 - 2.00.
theres a lookout not far from home i might have to visit tonight that overlooks the ocean.

take care

[NQLD_Newby]

Finally got some time at the ep, been living in a hole called an office lately. I have managed to come on here to read about whats going on a couple of times, but as i said absolutley no time to have through the scope.

Obviously because of the excitment about 17P/homes, this was a priority, and it didn't disapoint. Took my first look at about 930 pm when it first showed its face above the horizon. Was very dirty looking and couldn't even get crisp focus. Checked the laptop and the best time would be around midnight. Had a look at a few other things and came back periodically, the view was getting clearer the later it got, (dew to a combination of its angular height and the fact that the seeing was getting better as the days heat dispersed). As stated the best view was around midnight when it reached about 21 deg above the horizon. This object is amazing, a lot larger than i thought it woulod be. Even the naked eye view, it looked like omega centuri and 47 tuc do naked eye. It is pale yellow in colour and dramatically brightens towards an offset center. Looks like a cotton ball soked in dettol. :rofl:

Incidentally the sky put on another show last night. At 12.05am EST a huge meteor / fire ball thingy streaked accross the entire northern sky. Scared the heck out of me. Started as a normal shooting star and erupted into a glowing flame with a huge bright green, blue and purple tail. After the initial flare it died off and went back to a normal shooting star again and then erupted a second time and slowly got smaller until it burnt out. The whole deal lasted for what seemed like 10 seconds, although judging by how fast it was moving i'm sure it was much less than that probably around 3 to 5 seconds. I was gob smacked, was the most beautiful meteor I have ever seen. Did anyone else see it? I'm sure someone did, because many people would have been looking at 17p/holmes around that time.

[astro_south]

Here is the view from the southern extents of Brisbane.

Taken on a camera tripod using a 70-200mmL F/4 IS and 400D

The first shows the view at 70mm (4sec, f/4, ISO800) and the second shows it at 200mm (3sec, f/4, ISO800). It is a great sight with binoculars and I hope to get out a scope tonight for a better view and possibly piccy.

As you can see these shots are through Brisbane's skyglow so it must be an amazing sight under dark skies!!

[BluMoon]

Cheers Andrew foor the shot...I've had nothing but cloud out here for a week, so not had a chance to havea look...maybe tonight?

[fringe_dweller]

wow nice! looove the wide field - you werent at Pauls place were you Andrew? :P

[fringe_dweller]

really enjoyed the reports Graham and Rex! I am living vicariously thru your reports - a big cheers!
that meteors very interesting rex! maybe a taurid? anyways it certainly is the cream in the coffee/cherry on top when stuff like that happens!
i am going a serious shade of green now, and i'm not even the incredible hulk!

[MortonH]

You seen the latest picture on spaceweather???

[fringe_dweller]

Yes Morton!! :eyepop: these NH imagers (and their lovely comet) are pretty damn amazing eh :scared:

[Scorpius]

Set up in Perth South of the city this morning Sunday and found it, Just, despite not a cloud in the sky, the view was not at all good. The comet appeared to have lost its center brightness and was just a very dull luminous fuzzy glow. In fact Next image could not even detect it from the ambient light pollution using the SW880 10" Equally as dim in the binos compared with last week when it was quite bright.
Ah well... Next comet.

[iceman]

That's a bummer. From my location I have no hope of even seeing it. I need to travel, so will rely on the ED80 and/or camera on its own.

[fringe_dweller]

I can confirm Dave's observation, I saw it properly for the first time this morning from backyard in over a week, as clouds cleared for a while (the night i got image, last monday morning, was bad and i couldnt even see it by the time i took that photo), and boy it has dimmed since then. It appeared Large diffuse uniform white patch/ball maybe 10 arc minutes in size in 8x56 binocs, no real discernable central condensation. Still saw it NE, but it took a little effort, my conditions werent 100%, but not terrible. no colour seen in binocs either!!

[jjjnettie]

Very nice widefield Andrew.

[tornado33]

I will try for it with the 300mm lens tomorrow morning. Note it now transits earlier at around 1:45 am for Newcastle
Scott

[h0ughy]

nice photos andrew - welll done

[iceman]

Well the sky has cleared, and I've just worked out I've got an almost unobstructed view right down to the horizon just north of north-east..

So Perseus should rise in about that direction, but it will be very low as it heads north but I can't see it at its highest, directly north.

Only problem is, the first 5deg of horizon has blanket cloud. And now the wind is coming up.

[iceman]

Can someone please post an up-to-date chart of exactly where it is in Perseus?

Thanks

[h0ughy]

this do

[iceman]

Nope, I get an internal error trying to open it in Acrobat Reader.

[h0ughy]

mmmm works my end?well trythis

[iceman]

Thanks Dave.. Seeing that I don't think I have a hope from here. It's just too far north at transit and by then my view will be lost. I could probably almost see it at 1deg if I'm lucky :)

[Outbackmanyep]

go to www.skyhound.com (http://www.skyhound.com)

go to "Observing Information"

"Chasing comets" section....finder charts are in there

[fringe_dweller]

this link has been making the rounds quite a bit, may be some who havent seen it possibly? - anyway i cant stop watching the animation of the break up of invisible bits/chunks that create the fine dust streaks - so it was definitely a breakup of a kind then? amazing! supposedly hubble and spitzer images are to come for sure :)

first animations about half way down page

http://www.picdumidi.eu/

[RB]

Beautiful Shots Andrew (astro_south) and thanks for the link Kearn !!

I got up around 2.30 this morning to do some work and was stunned to find an amazingly clear sky so rushed out and set up the tripod with the 300mm.
I'll post the shots later when I get some time to get them off the camera.

I missed the transit but the comet was still visible at 3.30am where I could barely fit the width of my index finger between the comet and the horizon. :scared:

[iceman]

I had clouds at 1:30am and couldn't see anything.

[Scorpius]

I think we need some comments of people living further north. because of the very low proximity to the horizon for southern viewers.

With increase in temps over the past week, the viewing area is very noisy and polluted.
The past three nights here in Perth have been completely cloud free, something we have not experienced since last Autumn.

Its certainly making a challenge for everyone.

[Garyh]

Look forwards to your shots Andrew! :)

Like Murphy`s law predicts the sky was perfectly clear last night except for a band of cloud maybe 5 degrees wide right across the northern horizon, right across the comet! :(
Setup the newt just in case a clear patch came by but that cloud band wouldn`t budge!! Could faintly see it now and then to tease me.
About 3.30pm it was getting low and a small break showed at last! :)
Managed a dozen decent shots before it set below the trees. Quiet amazed how bright and easily visible the comet still is to the naked eye, no problem in finding it. I don`t reckon it has faded much at all in brightness but it no longer looks totally round, being much fainter on one side and larger with a lower surface brightness..couldn`t notice any color with the binos but...
shall post a pic of it a bit later
cheers Gary

[h0ughy]

Firstly i wish to apologise in advance before you go and look at the image. It would have to rate as one of the worst focused images I have taken. Sorry.

on the positive note - it was taken rather hurriedly when I woke to take my son to the toilet, I saw that it had cleared a little to the north (earlier in the evening you couldn't see a thing with cloud and sky glow, still had the sky glow).

you can clearly see the comet to the left and slightly above the radio antenna on the left. You can also see why this was a lucky shot, just wished the bugger was focused. any way with the weather being crappy for the rest of this week in the Hunter it will be the best I can do until Saturday when I take Scott alder and myself for a little trip north of Newcastle to escape the lights:D (wife's permission being sought on that one:prey:). Oh and for the record, the badly focused image was taken with the Pentax k10D ISO 800 30 second exposure f2.8 40mm sigma lens, mounted on the bricks on the veranda , propped up with the lens lid and the tripod base plate connector (why was it not on the tripod I hear you ask - umm I misplaced the key to the car and couldn't locate it without lighting up the whole house, and waking the wife;) )

[h0ughy]

looking forward to the shots mate:thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

4 hours drive north and you'll be at my place! Just cut up through Gloucester!

Takes me 4.5 hrs to get off the F3 at Sydney!
The airport here has low horizon from the north west right around the east to the south west, then the hangars get in the way!

[Outbackmanyep]

Nice shot Houghy!

It really sticks out like dogs......things

I had the f/6.3 reducer on my 8" and it filled at least 1/3rd the FOV!

:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

yes you're right and I saw it through all that crap called a horizon that I have. Even with the sky glow I could see it, and that is significant as the majority of the skyglow for me is maitland/raymond terrace and the Tomago Aluminium smelter to the far right of the image. Coupled together with low cloud/high cloud and smoke - I was a lucky boy:D

[jjjnettie]

Who cares that it's not in focus Dave. You nabbed it, that's the main thing.
I can't wait for the clouds to clear up here so I can see it again.
But my focal reducer is due in the mail this week, so I expect the cloud to be around for a while longer.

[tornado33]

It was gorgeous in binoculars, and visible naked eye as a fuzzy star. Its definately grown bigger over the last few days. I turned the 300mm Flourite lens from bert into it. Image here
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=25537
Weather going to be horrible for rest of the week they say in Newcastle :(

[Doc]

South Alabama, USA - visual viewing has been good here - binoculars show excellent detail. Last night was very hazy, but tonight the comet has visibly changed its location. It's moving folks! Anyone calculated an orbit yet?

Doc

[Garyh]

Good one hough! you still bagged it..:thumbsup:
This is what I managed to get just before Holmes set behind the ridge.was the only clear break all night. Wanted to get that green halo but only had 5 min of CS so had to sick to short subs...11 x 30sec iso 800.
I hope to get another crack at it in the next week....but all my shoestring stuff has arrived so shall be cloudy for 2 weeks or more..
cheers Gary

[tornado33]

Here is its orbit as well as a plot of its path for 2007-8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes

[sheeny]

Nice work guys! I'm in Vancouver ATM and haven't spotted it. Cloudy skies and light pollution. Heading for Banff tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find some clear skies there or along the way.:whistle:

Al.

[fringe_dweller]

*AHEM* hmmm well I seem to remember perth getting an unbelievably good run for comet mcnaught, best run in the country as i recall ;)

[fringe_dweller]

Andrew, Houghy, Scott, Gary, yet more awesome pics guys :2thumbs: love em

Houghy why is the sun rising in the middle of the night for you :confuse3::confuse2: i got a couple of nucleur reactors in meltdown around too lol

[MortonH]

Gee, it's starting to look like some weird sea creature now.

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/04nov07/Vicent-Peris-and-Jos%E9-Luis-Lamadrid1.jpg

[h0ughy]

two generators at eraring PS are solely dedicated to powering Kurri kurri and tomago Aluminuim smelters:scared:, is that close enough for a nuclear PS:whistle:

[DJVege]

Here's to Friday night -> * showing the "bird" *
Here's to Saturday night -> * opposite hand showing the "bird" *

And here's to clouds with no rain (i.e. no purpose in my book) -> * flippin 2 birds off *

:(

Of course, more clouds and chances of rain forecasted for the week.

[fringe_dweller]

yep they'll do i think lol - yikes! comet was bright to overcome that! :scared:

[fringe_dweller]

a rare holmes pic from 34.83 south :P this tuesday morning. finally had a real clear sky, and 17p at its highest point for my backyard - single tripod shot 50mm lens, corrected for some lp with tungsten setting.
still NE from here, but only just/marginally

[jjjnettie]

I really like that image Kearn.
Very nice indeed.

[RB]

Nice capture Kearn !

[NQLD_Newby]

Great pic Kearn, houghy and everyone. Man I gotta buy me a camera that is more than point and shoot. Problem is it will probably come down to a choice of camera... or larger scope... camera... scope...:sadeyes: unless santa brings me both. :lol: Once again great shots guys.

[Terry B]

Take a look at the APOD pic for today as a great image of the comet.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071105.html

[fringe_dweller]

Cheers you guys :-))) I was sure happy to see it properly again, and at a more relaxing pace, coming up to two weeks of naked eye visibilitly!!

Rex that is an interesting dilemma! get the camera camera lol

Hi terry, it's the flying spaghetti monster?! :whistle: have heard it called a 'jellyfish' somewhere :lol:

[circumpolar]

Finder chart found here at Cometchasing/shyhound. (not that we need it)

http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/17P.gif

[Grinz]

Holmes has been hiding behind clouds and the neighbour's houses for me here in Cape Town. It won't be much more than a horizon grazer, but I'm determined to try and see it this weekend - weather permitting - from a better vantage point than my home.

[fringe_dweller]

your slightly further north than me grinz, you should see it easy with dark skies and good northern horizon! it is worth it even from our lat.s happy hunting :)

[fringe_dweller]

ever since I read that dimensionly the expanding huge outer coma is now greater in size than the sun! i have been imagining when I view it as another little sun at the distance of mars roughly, even tho i'm not seeing the large outer coma from here :P still i'm having fun with it :screwy:

http://spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/07nov07/Kurt-Allen-Fisher1.jpg

[RB]

Here's the result from the other night (5th).
As I said in my earlier post "I missed the transit but the comet was still visible at 3.30am where I could barely fit the width of my index finger between the comet and the horizon."

This is a stack of 10 x 5 sec exposures at 3200 ISO at 300mm.
The reason for this was that I only had time to grab the fixed tripod so I opted for short exposures at high ISO to minimise star trailing.

[h0ughy]

awesome shot RB, but the lines.......i suppose thats what 3200 iso makes

[Outbackmanyep]

I think thats a great shot under the circumstances :thumbsup: , i've almost forgotten what stars look like under these clouds......
Good to see you were able to capture the moment Rocket Boy!!

Cheers!

[RB]

Thanks OBMY, yeh it was very low at that time to image properly.
I just wish it would clear soon so everyone get's a chance to see it.


Thanks Dave.
Yes due to high ISO but also I think the lines are due to the short exposure time as well, only 5 sec per shot, at such low light levels.
Usually we deal with subs that are over 30 sec each so the sensor responds better but at 5 sec at ISO 3200 it's pushing the limits.

[gaa_ian]

It is certainly an impressive sight from our northerly location here in Gove.
I was out of town last weekend, but the lads tell me it had the appearance of a giant ghostly Jellyfish through my 10" dob with a 40mm widefield Eyepiece.
I had a look late last night & while the seeing was not fantastic it is very large, easily close to the size of the full moon, filling most of the field of view of a 27mm Panoptic eyepiece.
I have been impresed enough to do a few write up's including this one on Ezine Articles: http://EzineArticles.com/?id=809600

[WadeH]

Just come inside after watching Holmes 17P (30X100 bino's) rising through the trees on the horizon 500m away. Amazing view, it was like watching a dull full moonrise! It still blows me away as to how big this thing is. Even the view naked eye was impresive.

[saberscorpx]

The Great Coma of 2007?

Licking my chops for an occultation of Alpha Persei.


SJS

[joshman]

i found holmes completely by accident last night, almost directly north from where i am, just above the horizon about 11:30 pm. it was the only gap in teh clouds, lol.not a bad view for a first light on my scope; :D

[Outbackmanyep]

COMET 17P/ HOLMES IS DISPLAYING A VERY NICE DISCONNECTION EVENT!

DE's result when the comet passes through a change of polarity in the solar wind or the heliospheric current sheet......

http://quasar.teoth.it/gallery/albums/userpics/10063/112_17P_8nov07.jpg

[RB]

Wow what an awesome shot !!!
Thanks for the link Sir.

:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Fantastic! I still haven't seen the bloody thing!

[h0ughy]

cheer up it cant rain for ever, i think not anyway

[tornado33]

Well I see lots of stars outside now. I will start setting up round midnight in the front yard with the 300mm lens if it stays clear
Scott

[RB]

I just had a look thru my binos, wow it's huge, it's changed since last time I saw it.
It's more diffuse and expanded in size.

Too tired to setup and image it. :(

[iceman]

Damn you RB! Image it for me!

[RB]

I might do a widefield for you Mike. :D

[RB]

Here's tonight's result.
A nice widefield of C.Holmes.

Imaged at 85mm, ISO 800, 20 sec exp, f/1.6, 20Da.

[iceman]

Wow what an odd looking thing! Excellent shot!

[h0ughy]

I just came in from taking some shots - degree of difficulty very high. mount not aligned and with exactly 10 cm above the garage roof and a tree coming into view I did well - 20 Second unguided shot vixen R200SS and the cooled canon running at 1 degree and iso 1600. I have processed nothing yet, this is a crappy shot but at least I can say I took it

[h0ughy]

too late in the morning to play with this crappy images. stack of 4 20 second shots at iso 1600. the green is a tree, the blue from lights and the clouds are lit up from street lighting. no tracking, badly focused and I should have been more prepared instead of watching a movie and then venturing out to find it clear and midnight,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:help::shrug : its really low

[RB]

I don't think it's crabby at all Houghy, you've done very well both in capture and process.
We know how hard it is to capture from our latitude and it's only that much harder when you don't have a good horizon and light pollution.

Well done champ !!!

[sheeny]

Cool, guys! Keep those images coming! I might be in the northern hemisphere at the moment but it's the wrong time of year for clear skies in Vancouver!

Al.

[CometGuy]

Here are some different and remarkeable photo's of 17P, taken in 1892 by Edward Barnard (warning photos a large file sizes).

Terry

From a post on yahoo group mpml by James McGaha, quote:

"In 1892, a few days after Comet Holmes discovery,
E. E. Barnard Photography the comet at Lick Observatory
using the 6" F5.16 Willard Portrait Lens. These photographs
were published in the Publication of the Lick Observatory
Vol. XI – 1913."

"The photographs were scanned at 600dpi and adjust in PS2."

Plate 102
10 November 1892 at 7h 45m P.S.T.
Exposure 3h 0m
Comet – 8' diameter with outer ring of 19' diameter

Plate 103
10 November 1892 at 7h 45m P.S.T.
Exposure 3h 0m
(enlargements of Plate 102)

Plate 104
21 November 1892 at 9h 32m P.S.T.
Exposure 1h 15m
Comet – 19' diameter

Plate 105
8 December 1892 at 6h 57m P.S.T.
Exposure 1h 15m
Comet – 25' diameter

James McGaha, MS, FRAS
Director, Grasslands Observatory, 651


http://www.skepticus.com/images/Holmes%20Plate102s.jpg

http://www.skepticus.com/images/Holmes%20Plate103s.jpg

http://www.skepticus.com/images/Holmes%20Plate104s.jpg

http://www.skepticus.com/images/Holmes%20Plate105s.jpg

[h0ughy]

oh wow that's fantastic - imaging the vista if it passed the m31 today with the gear currently available. what a great historical reference

[tornado33]

Great shots Rocket Boy and Houghy
I note the comet has a similar appearance in those 1892 plates, a big dustball with little gas emission, thoush some is noted in the negative image. A very unusual comet with a history of huge outbursts. The nucleous must be very unstable. Because the comet is a short period one and relatively acessable, NASA should give it priority for a space probe mission.
Scott

[Blue Skies]

Saw it again last night - couldn't believe how big it was! About half the size of the Pleiades. I could just see it naked eye with averted vision but in the binos it was:eyepop: wow. This is certainly something special.

[Outbackmanyep]

I concurr Blue Skies, i got up at 2am, i had a slight hangover cos i decided to have a few with the neighbours as it was raining earlier....got up at 2 am and looked out my window and saw stars, walked outside and saw Holmes sitting just above neighbours house.....i was too "out-of-it" to set the telescope up!

So i got some tripod shots as well as visually through the binocluars, i also sized it up against the pleiades!

Awesome!

[joshman]

i saw it again last night, and managed to fire off an image, if i can get out with the scope again soon and work out how to get it properly polar aligned, then i'll try some longer exposures and maybe even some HDR on this bad boy.

it certainly is a pretty sight!

i'll post some pics tomorrow night!

[h0ughy]

widefield from Wallsend NSW taken today 12 november 2007 - pentax k10D and the sigma 2.8 lens, focus was a tad out:whistle:

[h0ughy]

10 second shot on tripod with canon 400D and 200mm lens obviously no tracking

[iceman]

I'm determined to see it this week! Good shots dave!

[Garyh]

I don`t mind those shots Houghy, the radio tower makes a interesting foreground subject. :thumbsup:
Got the best look at it last night since the full moon and it is still easily naked eye here. Managed to get some more pics of it between the fog.
cheers

[saberscorpx]

re: ...the radio tower makes a interesting foreground subject.

No doubt.
And too bad that gorgeous red-orange double isn't a permanent resident.


SJS

[DJVege]

So am I, but I'm losing hope. Every night I check the sky, and every night it's clouded. If I look South and the sky is clear, I'll look North, and it will be clouded. If the day is clear, the night will be clouded. At least it's rained lately.

[joshman]

well here's the image as promised, as i said earlier, super rough alignment (read: plonked the mount down pointing roughly in the right direction)

taken at Gatton, QLD, 1:10am, 11-11-2007
33s @ ISO1600, 400D Primefocus through Skywatcher ED80 on HEQ5. minor brightness and sharpness adjustment in picasa2. full frame, resized.

[taminga16]

Well done Josh, looking forward to more of your images in the near future.

Regards,

Greg.

P.S. Don't be in a hurry to purchase more eyepieces just yet, borrow some different types on viewing nights and see if they match your expectations, in the end your view is the only one that counts.

[joshman]

thanks, and very sound advice, i've got a mate who has several ep's, so next chance i get i plan to borrow a few and try them out.

[RB]

Good work Houghy !

Josh you're off to a good start.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Boy that thing is huge!!!! I haven't seen it for a week. It has grown enormously.


And yes we got clear skies to see it :D

[[1ponders]]

Here we go, hot off the press. Straight Raw to jpeg conversion using the Canon proprietary software. I hope to stack a few more tomorrow to take care of the noise.

1/ 180sec ISO800 F6

Canon 300D/Orion ED80/WO 0.8 FR/ Autoguided using TV Guider

The brown bit at the bottom is the top of my side fence :lol: :P

[RB]

Oh what a great shot Paul !!

:eyepop:

[[1ponders]]

Thanks Andrew. :D

It looks awesome atm through 20x80 binos :jawdrop:

[astroron]

It was awsome in the 8"and 16" scopes, I have taken some tripod and piggyback shots as well as one at f/10in the 8" scope but as it is that funny stuff called film:DI will have to wait for the film to be developed:sadeyes:
Great pic paul:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

After so long being stuck inside, isn't it a great night out. I think I might be a bit late for work tomorrow. :D

[astroron]

Called it anight after taking the last picture as it clouded over for about the tenth time tonight:(but still enjoyed the observing that I managed to get in.:):):astron::stargaze:
Even had a very small shower, just put acover over the scope for about an hourthen started again:)

[[1ponders]]

A crop of a single 5 minute shot before packing up. Same details as before. Colour gradient removed and cropped in PS

[iceman]

Wow Paul, they are awesome shots. Congrats.

[GrahamL]

yes it looks much bigger this week..seems to of moved a little..it now fills the view of my low power eyepiece.

[h0ughy]

nice work Mr Ponders

[Garyh]

Nice shot Paul! actually thought that brown gradient was from a dusty horizon....don`t mind that look to it. Gives that feeling of how low down it is for us...Last night was crystal clear and I could see it rising to the NE even tho it had barely risen! but was too buggered after imaging Leonos as have a bad western horizon and have to travel. Look forwards to seeing it tonight and more piccys! Shall post my Holmes from the night before as soon as I get it processed!
Great to see some blue sky and clear nights :thumbsup: but boy that dew is heavy
cheers Gary

[robin]

Awesome shot Paul. Perfectly captured. Would it still readily visible from say, my latitude of 38 degrees sth?

[[1ponders]]

Oh yeah. It is stunning. While my shots were being taken I was eyeballing it through my 20x80s (on a nice tall tripod). Man it was stunning.

[fringe_dweller]

aww cmon you guys stop holding up still eerily glowing old incandescent light bulbs and pretending they're comets, I mean really this getting ridiculous :P

seriously, awesome stuff peeps! comet totally pawned

special mention here to RB, really got to me with that widefield, holy expletives! congrats on spaceweather inclusion with it too mate!

[fringe_dweller]

i saw it last night from anaemic skys BY again, and yes nice size even the reduced version from here, nearly .5 d in 8x56 binocs!
saw a nice early leonid later on, whew smokin!

[jjjnettie]

Taken last night. First of a few.
Gstar-ex, 100mm lens, gain high, senseup 128x.
84 frames stacked in DSS, tarted up in Paint Shop Pro 8.

[RB]

Cheers Fringie :D

Very nice shot jjj, amazing how large it looks !

[[1ponders]]

Nice shot Jeanette. Glad it cleared out your way so you got the chance. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

The last image I posted had the in camera digital zoom applied to it. :doh:
This one doesn't.
It makes a pretty pairing with Mirfak.

[davewaldo]

Hi Everyone! Some great images have been taken of this comet (good work Jeanette and Paul!)

I finally got to see this comet for the first time last night. I had great skies for the first time in ages!

I also took some crappy pics with my 20D 8sec F2.8 50mm lens. No tracking.

I also tried stacking for the first time in PS (only stacked the small area around the comet). It worked well. :)

I'm happy I finally got to se it! Though I could only use my little 60mm refractor, I'm guessing it would look great through my 10".

Here they are: Full 50mm FOV plus a 100% crop.

Cheers.