Hi All,

Comet P/17 Holmes is still a naked eye object from a dark location, even with the first quarter moon present, it was visible to the eye ~4th magnitude. It is very massive now, the coma/dust cloud has expanded in excess of this 5 degree field of view.

This is my shot from last night 12/18/07 from my observatories in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I captured a 15 minute exposure (total), Modified Canon 20D (Baader filter), Vixen 5.5" Newt. scope, and 10 frames stacked in Nebulosity.
Autoguided with a CCD labs Q guider & PHD guiding software.

The FOV is about 5 degrees, Holmes is now larger than this FOV.....you can see part of the blue/green front outer envelope preceeding the Dusty red/rose colored coma.
The nucleus appears more of a typical circular snow ball along with the interesting tear drop shaped tail.

Attached Images

CometHolmes_Chumack121807.jpg (136.9 KB, 77 views)

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Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Fantastic. I didn't realize how much detail was still visible. Especially the outer gas shell.

Kind regards
Matt

A Fine shot of the comet at this stage John, lots of details and very nice colors also. Clear Skies