New Naked Eye Comet - 17/P Holmes

Great images lads.
Mike S, YOU NAILED IT!

Thats almost an exact match to what we observed in the 20'' last night.

Mike OC,
yip, that band was very obvious in the obsessionator.
I could even see it in the etx125 a few nights ago (see earlier post of mine)

Dave and I both could see a slight 'tail' or, how could I word it...
'impression' of a tail...
very early stages yet but we both saw it when we used a particular filter
(Can't remember which one...Dave?)

it also shows something which I thought I saw in the scope but wasn't sure if it was just me.
About two thirds of the ways out in the halo is a slightly dark band. See what I'm talking about?

Michael, I thought that I could see that too through the eyepiece but put it down to my eyes.. But there is a hint of it in the image alright. Like looking at a bubble, or a spherical shell of expanding smoke with a slightly brightening towards the outer edge.
Another thing I noticed on all images processed is the slightly elongated nucleus??

Here's the latest from tonight at 00:18UT 27/10/2007.
My estimate is a mag of slightly greater than mag 2.0. It's still getting brighter. What caused it? My guess is an impact with an asteroid.
We (IAS) have asked for Cassini and Hubble to be trained on this unique event but the response is slow.


Canon 350D 30sec @ISO100 3 image composite. Celestron 102SLT. Conditions were horrible, these shots were taken through cloud and full moonlight.

Lads,
Great images by all.
Michael S, the image you got is exactly how we saw it, except it was brighter and the mini fan tail was more defined.
I thought the core was at times stellar like but at other times was definitely elongated, I had put it down to seeing or a warm mirror, but now seems to be real.
Frank, we used a IDAS filter, it helped the darken the background while not swamping out the comet although its not the ideal filter for this object.
Michael OC, you are absolutely right about the dark ring/area in the coma, we definitely saw it.
The full moon is a real killer for trying to see anything resembling a tail, anyone used a comet/cyanogen filter on this comet yet ?

..except it was brighter and the mini fan tail was more defined.

I would agree Dave, there was a much more defied fan shape to the mini tail on Thursday night. It was more squat and diffuse last night.

Isn't it great to see such dynamic changes fron night to night. Come to think of it it is just great to be able to see it three nights in a row. I do not have much hope for tonight though....

Lads
Did it look bigger last night, it was about 5 arc mins on thursday, if it go to 15 it would become a naked eye disk in the sky, lets hope it gets there. !!