And the show goes on

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And one more, I'd say more life-like.

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It's not so spherical anymore. Thanks for posting.

True, our orbits are diverging and we are begining to see the gas and dust trail more 'edge on'.

Kind regards
Matt

Since comet 17/P Holmes is now considered to be a "life time astronomical event" among astronomers why we still don't see any pictures of the comet from the world's biggest telescopes? Is it just because they have schedules which can not be changed even if there is a "life time event" under way?

I concur with the question. there seems to be no interest to nasa and other large based obervatorys there leaving it to us i guess the Amateurs.

Found Holmes on the second glance in the very early hours of 11/11/07, right there in Perseus. France, find Mirfak, the "fork star" in Perseus' Greek-lambda shape and the transparent lit-up disc of the comet should be in your binoculars' field of view. After finding Mirfak, find Delta Persei. It's even nearer that one.

Yep, still naked-eye. Ridiculously easy in binoculars, but looking with naked eye, you can pick it up well with averted vision.

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"The Minstrel Boy to the War is gone..."

Actually, it's nearer Mirfak than Delta Pers. Sorry 'bout that. Took a look predawn with Perseus high in the NW, about 1315 UT. Just a big round thing in 7 x 50s, naked eye visible even with the east just beginning to lighten.

__________________
"The Minstrel Boy to the War is gone..."

When the comet first outburst it was much closer to Delta Persei. Just a few days ago it was equidistant from both Alpha and Delta. Now it is closer to Alpha Persei and closing in. Check out this thread for position projections:

Will 17P/Holmes occult Alpha Persei (Mirfak/Alcheb)?

Thanks, Tim. How are things at the U of A -- my alma mater, or as near as I come to one? I took frosh astronomy there to satisfy the science requirement, as I'd picked UA for its Slavic Languages Department, and was quite bitten by the astro bug.

__________________
"The Minstrel Boy to the War is gone..."

Hubble did take a picture of the nucleus at the beginning of this month.

Apparently the coma is now bigger than the sun... that's mind boggling when you think about it.

There is a nice image from a widefield mosaic camera at the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope here. among other places. There may be more not getting wide release. By now, the comet is so big that few large telescopes have wide-enough field imagers to take it in without a major mapping project (come to think of it, last time I imaged it with our campus 0.4m telescope, it took me 12 frames). Best I can remember, the Gemini telescopes don't take in much more than 5 arcminute fields, with Subaru's SuprimeCam the giant-telescope champion at something like 3/4 degree. On top of that, it would take something even more amazing (like SN 1987A) to chase all the star and galaxy people off the telescopes with their carefully prepared schedules of multiobject spectroscopy. For something this bright, large telescopes haven't offered too much unique in the way of imaging; IR spectroscopy would be a powerful approach, though. {Truth in advertising - I did get bumped from the schedule of the ESO 3.6m by SN 1987A several months after its explosion was observed. I happend to check somewhat later and found that it was snowing for most of those nights anyway...] Also, keep in mind that not all facilities feel much urge to release pictures quickly for public edification, depending on their user communities...