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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...!
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