I spent several hours last night at the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory observing Comet 17P/Holmes using a fellow ASH member's 11x70 binocular, the ASH 4.25" f/4.2 Edmund Scientific Astroscan at 17 and 34x (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl and 13mm Tele Vue Ploessl), the ASH 5" f/5 achromatic finder scope, the ASH 12.5" f/6.5 Cave Astrola Newtonian and a fellow member's 30mm Orion UltraScan (69x), and the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 118, 144, 162, 202, 259, and 404x (55mm University Optics Ploessl, 45mm U.O. Ploessl, 40mm U.O. MK-70, 32mm Erfle, 25mm U.O. MK-70, 25mm Celestron orthoscopic, 16mm Brandon). The best views of the night were through the 12.5" at 69x and the 17" at 144x.

17P/Holmes continues to evolve. Last night the coma was far more uniform. There was no obvious demarcation between the inner coma and the outer halo as there had been on Sunday night. The ejecta fan had expanded to an almost circular shape. At 404x, the bright pseudonuclear condensation was clearly non-stellar. I estimated the size of the coma to be approximately 9 arc minutes. The comet did not appear to be quite as yellow as the previous night.

I took a number of tripod-mounted shots of the comet using my Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR and Canon 18-55 and 80-200mm zoom lenses. I also did some eyepiece projection shots through the 5" using a 32mm Brandon and prime focus shots through the 17".

I'll be posting some of my photos sometime soon.

Dave Mitsky

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If we have cloud free skies tonite, I'll get some more pics with my 10 inch Meade.

Come on Dave. Where are they?

Found it with my 8 x 42 binos, nice sight indeed.

Last night I viewed 17P/Holmes with my Celestron 8x42s before observing the comet with a friend's unique 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain.

Dave Mitsky

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I found some time to work on the photos on Sunday evening. Some of the better ones have been posted at Images of 17P/Holmes

Dave Mitsky

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How tough is Holmes to find, if one isn't terribly familiar with the night sky? I can figure out N,E,W and S, and can recognize the obvious asterisms (Dippers, Cassiopia, Orion), but am fairly light polluted here in NJ.

17P/Holmes is now obviously non-stellar to the naked-eye and is quite easy to see in the northeastern sky after 8:00 p.m. or so. At that time, the comet is to the lower left of Mirfak (Alpha Persei), the brightest star in Perseus. It lies roughly between the bright first magnitude star Capella, which is close to the horizon, and Mirfak.

The comet is a bit closer to Mirfak now but the finder chart posted here should still prove useful to you.

There are other charts at http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/17P.gif and http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6183

Dave Mitsky

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Hi, New on the site. Got on 17P/Holmes a couple of weeks ago beteen the clouds. Relly great with 10X50 bonoculrs.

This is a real good chart
Look towards the Northeast around 8 or 9 p.m. If you can find Cassiopeia you are almost there. Look down and a little to right (East) of Cassiopeia. To me Perseus looks like a ragged line of stars going up and down. Towards the bottom you'll see a triangle of stars. The left member of that triangle is not really a star, but is the comet. It just looks like a faint star naked eye, but look at it with a pair of binoculars and you can see it is really a fuzzy blob.

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Thanks for the help. I'm pretty sure I saw it last night in 10 x 50 binoculars. Couldn't see it naked eye, but saw a fuzzy blob in the binos. I plan to look again tonight to make sure it wasn't a small cloud. (due to light polution, small clouds look like fuzzy blobs too, around here...)

You're welcome.

Here's another finder chart that may come in handy:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ct_30_2007.png

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Here's one more for the road - http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...rth_holmes.gif

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Yup, I definitely caught it. Last night was much better seeing, as it was visible naked eye.

Is Holmes inbound or outbound?

It never comes within the Earth's orbit. It is just past perihelion so it is moving away from us. It's in the "Jupiter-belt" family of comets.

Aphelion distance: 5.183610 AU
Perihelion distance: 2.053218 AU

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

The comet is above the plane of the ecliptic and is outbound but the Earth has been catching up to it. 17P/Holmes will reach opposition in two weeks.

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.