Naked eye comet suddenly comes into view

[Chris Knight]

Yes, a beautifully clear sky last night and Holmes still easily visible with the naked eye. Thru good binoculars it appears as a roughly spherical "smudge" and looks a little like a globular cluster.

smich

It was still an excellent object for binoculars, but seems to have faded to about magnitude 4, barely visible against the suburban light pollution around here.

[Jurgen de Boer]

more photo's made this morning (15-11-2007) from Amersfoort, Netherlands.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Really, really good shots. I know how hard it is to capture anything like that. How come the comet is sharp whereas the stars have trails? Were you tracking the comet independently? I had no idea it was moving so much in such a short space of time.

[Chris Knight]

Really, really good shots. I know how hard it is to capture anything like that. How come the comet is sharp whereas the stars have trails? Were you tracking the comet independently? I had no idea it was moving so much in such a short space of time.

I doubt if any tracking was involved, just the time exposure needed to image the comet, which is fuzzy, does not seem to have any elongation due to the rotation of the field of view, compared to the background stars.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

You could be right, but the comet looks as well defined as it does when I view it myself through my scopes, which is strange.

[Gray-Wolf]

It's becoming an 'edge of yer eye' comet now though as it fades away. I hadn't known it did the same thing in 1898 though. They seem to reckon it's own internal gasses blow off a chunk (pancaked shaped?) every so often as it traverses around the sun. I have enjoyed it being up there though! What's next????

[stella]

It's becoming an 'edge of yer eye' comet now though as it fades away. I hadn't known it did the same thing in 1898 though. They seem to reckon it's own internal gasses blow off a chunk (pancaked shaped?) every so often as it traverses around the sun. I have enjoyed it being up there though! What's next????

November 6 1892, actually.

[stella]

Couldn't you have been a little more polite Stella?

There is nothing 'ad hominem' about that response.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

But it's typical of half your posts Stella...correcting people when it really isn't warranted. That's why Wibs said what she did.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Worth a look tonight if you get a chance because it's passing in front of Perseus's brightest star, Mirfak.