A new naked eye comet !!! I just recieved this.....It is currently in
Perseus, near alpha perseii, it's brightest star !

Keith..


Received the below report from BAA. Comet 17/P Holmes has undergone a
superoutburst, it was predicted to be mag +17 but is now naked eye at +3.8.
Report is below, also see links inc finder chart.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0017P/2007.html

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00313

In the past 24 hours, a spectacular event has taken place involving the
periodic comet P/Holmes (17P). Its predicted brightness is about magnitude
17 however last night it was discovered by the Spanish amateur, Juan Antonio
Henríquez Santana to have undergone a tremendous outburst having attained
magnitude 10 at that time (Oct 24 0h UT). It was a similar outburst in 1892
that led to its discovery. Latest reports (Seiichi Yoshida, Oct 24 13h UT)
indicate that it is stellar in appearance and 3RD MAGNITUDE in brightness:
so bright in fact that it is readily visible to the unaided eye. That's
almost one million times brighter than normal ! Fortunately for UK-based
observers the comet is well placed for observation and is visible throughout
the entire night. Its position at 0h UT tonight (Oct 24/25) will be: R.A.
03h 53.0m, Dec. +50 08' Its appearance will probably be that of a fairly
bright naked-eye star moving at an apparent rate of close to 10 arcmin per
day at PA 298 deg. It!
is currently 1.63 AU (245 million km) from the Earth. Observations are
strongly encouraged and should be reported to Jonathan Shanklin, Director of
the Comet Section.

Darn--predicted to be fully cloudy the next several nights here....

Todd

__________________
-----
Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Cool! Except the waxing gibbous Moon (as it heads to full) is going to be a little problem for the next week.

ETA: But it sure is placed nice for us in the northern hemisphere!

ETA: Thanks Keith!

What causes such a superoutburst? Did its inhabitants click on the lights? You say it is currently about 1.6 AU from Earth. How far is it from the Sun?

__________________
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

2.4 AU from Sun

An article with orbit diagram:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17P;orb=1

Otherwise we could obtain a super-high-resolution spectrum with our telescope like RIGHT NOW (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Thuringia, Germany, 2m Telescope, largest optical telescope in Germany).

This sucks.

Don Alexander

__________________
David Alexander Kann
PhD student, Gamma-Ray burst Afterglow Collaboration at ESO
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg

<span style='color:blue'>Ignite our minds and let's burn brighter
These are the wonders at your feet</span>
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>- Dark Tranquillity, The Wonders At Your Feet</span>

From wiki, some more general info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes

Well. Dunno.

My first thought would be an impact by a smaller body, a kind of "super deep Impact". As far as I understand comets, the rebrightening must be due to the expulsion of a fresh cloud of material that is now expanding, reflecting more and more sunlight. The easiest way to create such an expulsion far from the sun is with an impactor.

This seems an incredible scientific opportunity.

Don Alexander

__________________
David Alexander Kann
PhD student, Gamma-Ray burst Afterglow Collaboration at ESO
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg

<span style='color:blue'>Ignite our minds and let's burn brighter
These are the wonders at your feet</span>
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>- Dark Tranquillity, The Wonders At Your Feet</span>

super outburst--my guess (uninformed, but based on instincts and random bits of knowledge about comets) would be that, as the comet approaches the sun, ice on and near the surface melts. This is somewhat chaotic and sometimes, a large chunk breaks off or a larger than usual geyser would erupt--but in any case, a much more reflective surface is presented to the sun--say some dark rock is blasted away by the geysers exposing a fresh surface of ice.

__________________
-----
Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

That's a super little applet.

I checked the comet's and inner planets' orbital positions in Nov 1892 when there was another such outburst. No similarities with the current positioning.

__________________
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

This comet has almost a planet-like orbit, from 2.2 to 5.2 AU.

Another link:

http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/index.html

Wow!!!!! This is the single most strangest comet I have ever seen in my Life, earlier today, an alert went out that this comet had suddenly brighened from a predicted magnitude 17 to magnitude 3 - incredible, I wonder how this has happened? I quickly set up my 15x70mm binoculars and I easily found it in the constellation Perseus, just about 5 degrees from Alpha Persei at magnitude 1.8, also the star Delta Persei is at magnitude 3.0, from these two stars, I can see the comet at about magnitude 2.5 !!!!! I could immediately see that it is very much yellow in colour, just like the planet Saturn, and it is definitely non star like, with a slighty elongated shape east-west, with no sign of a tail, especially since the near full moon is shining brightly.

This can easily be mistaken for a nova, and is easily visible with the naked eye ! Here is a quick shot that I took.....this will grab many headlines over the next few days...

Keith....

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2277/...c03db8e8_o.jpg

Very cool Keith! I'm gonna take a peak tonight! Can't wait. It's been perfectly clear here for days too. Just that pesky Moon in the way.

Send it to spaceweather.com and become an Internet celebrity!!

Alex

__________________
David Alexander Kann
PhD student, Gamma-Ray burst Afterglow Collaboration at ESO
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg

<span style='color:blue'>Ignite our minds and let's burn brighter
These are the wonders at your feet</span>
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>- Dark Tranquillity, The Wonders At Your Feet</span>

From the applet, it appears that Jupiter traces the comet's orbit for a short section of its orbit. Looks like there could be some interaction there in 2052. If that doesn't create fireworks, the close Jupiter encounter in 2183 should.

The common planetary positioning I was looking for in 1892 was: the comet near perihelion, with all inner planets on the same side of the sun as the comet (as is the current configuration). However, it was totally different in 1892.

__________________
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Another link with positional data:

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephem...s/0017P_1.html

Date R. A. (2000) Decl.

2007/10/24 03 53.81 +50 03.5

I'll give it a look tonite, I got a good ISS/Shuttle pass I'm going to try to track.

Is the 2 line orbit info available anywhere?

Sorry man. I may still be alive in 2052 and maybe I'll give it a look-see. But 2183 . . .

I saw the Shuttle going by last night. Man, it was moving. I know nothing about telescopic tracking, but I expect that's going to be a challenge.

__________________
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.