Comet 17P/Holmes by AstronomyMan

Photography • Space • posted on Oct 30, 2007

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Description

Visible now to the naked eye. Look north after dinner (if you live in the Eastern USA). At about 3 fist widths up from the horizon you will see Casseiopia (looks like a W on its side or a stylized 3). Now look down and slightly to the right and you will see a bright star about 1 fist width at arms length below Casseiopia, that is a star called Mirfak in Persius. That star forms a triangle with two other stars, a small triangle. The one on the left, is Comet 17P/Holmes. It is currently between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It suffered an 'outburst' a few days ago and brightened from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2.9 (500,000 times brighter). This image was taken using a 80mm telescope, 40 x 10 second exposures stacked using Nebulosity from Stark Labs. It does actually look green through a telescope. The reason it looks round and not comet shape is that the tail is pointing directly away from us. It is NOT heading for us so panic ye not. Enjoy, and Clear Dark Skies to all.

Comments (9)

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ia_strmchsr

3:09PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

nice job, I'm hoping to be able to get out and take a peek myself in the next couple days. Hoping the winds die down some.

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kimariehere

3:12PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

WOW this is facinating oh a dream to capture a comet ( guess i'd have to buy a serious telescope first ! ...) wow it brightened 500,000 times great what made it do that i wonder!!!... awesome and amazing capture!! thanks for all the information on it too!! oh whew its not heading for us lol!

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Dianthus

3:13PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

That is excellent work:)

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athesdan

3:14PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

very interesting !

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Jofurowa

4:28PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

1st time I see such a picture. This is beautiful.

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TomDart

7:05PM | Tue, 30 October 2007

Thanks for the heads up..now to find a dark place where I can get throught the trees distance from the horizon. Super image..the comet helped with its angle.

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