Didn't know you were a Minolta man Trevor. 5D here - love it to bits!

Gotta love Minolta Paul! Pity they dropped out of the market. End of an era.

Comet definetly shows a very bright nucleus (slightly-elongated perhaps?) with a bright diffuse region surrounding it. Nucleus appears off-centre relative to surrouding material.

I wonder then Mike if the way you have seen it is how it is travelling? I mean, it is down as travelling 10 arcmin per day, so maybe before dawn, you'll definitely notice that elongation get more elongated.

Seanie.

Just for comparison, this is from 5 days ago:

www.flickr.com/photos/jrs63/1662769764/in/photostream/

This comet is easy to spot naked eye even with the Moon and suburban skies and really bright in binoculars. It's in the same binocular FOV as Delta Persei and in my opinion the same magnitude, i.e. 3.0. It's like a nova has appeared in Perseus!

This comet is easy to spot naked eye even with the Moon and suburban skies and really bright in binoculars. It's in the same binocular FOV as Delta Persei and in my opinion the same magnitude, i.e. 3.0. It's like a nova has appeared in Perseus!

I'd agree with that mag. estimate.

BTW, good to see you back here Gordon.

I think it may be getting a little brighter - my bet is that it's had a collision with a piece of space rock / asteriod, I think it's too far out for outgassing

Anyways, here's a wider shot from 1 hour ago for those familiar with the outline of Perseus...

Keith..

Wow!
:shock:
Too easy!
I could still spot it naked eye through 2 street lights.
It's sort a yellow alright.
It's also oval or sort of elongated as Trev said.

Lets hope it go's McNaught on our asses!
:wink:

I'm looking at it in C14 all i can say is wow.It looks like the Eskimo Nebula. I'm imaging it in the 80ED hope to do an LRGB don't know how much detail i'm going to get with the full Moon.

Here's a view in clearer sky - the colour difference between Holmes and Mirphak and Delta Persei is obvious.

Right, well I was going to bed, but now I'm going out to set up the scopes.
:roll:

I'm trying to image it to get some kind of detail in the core. 0.2 of a second just washes out the core and makes it look like a bright star. Some longer exposure CCD shots show no obvious tail. But the Moon gradients could well be masking that, oh why oh why couldn;t this have happened under a new moon!!

just grabbed a quick look in a 90 mm short tube refractor, definitely got a yellow / golden tint to it. and is distinctly fuzzy even at low powers. Under higher powers it puffs up substantially.

time to haul out the dob before bed. Lets hope it keeps on brightening. just had a peep in cartes du ciel, its moving away from the sun, but it gets closest to us on 5th november at 1.603 au. at the moment it is 1.635 au from us.

Just seen it from Dundrum in South Dublin.

I had to double check in the NS11 as I thought it was star in the binoculars. I didn't even have to plug it in - just pointed the finder scope at it and it popped up in the eyepiece. It's the first comet I've been able to find without computer aid!

It looked round to me rather than elongated as if we were seeing it head on.

Michael.

I'm trying to image it to get some kind of detail in the core. 0.2 of a second just washes out the core and makes it look like a bright star. Some longer exposure CCD shots show no obvious tail. But the Moon gradients could well be masking that, oh why oh why couldn;t this have happened under a new moon!!

Ah, so it's not just me then. Tried to grab a few shots also but nothing worth posting.

Just grabbed a quick shot. It shows the core as definitely non-stellar although is hard to get much else in this moon-light.

Yep, same here. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. Started out on 15 seconds and worked all the way down to 1/5 of a second and all frames washed out.

It looks exactly as Michael described - just like a compact glob. Nice halo around it.

Dave, your photo is what I saw in my Dob just now - though much better seeing the real photons I reckon - it's so bright!

Last shot - I promise, unless it gets brighter :shock:

This is with my new Canon ef 24-70mm 'L' lens at f4. It's just a great sight!!!
Keith..

Yup . Dave. You got it nailed there. Thats exactly what I'm seeing through the 12'' dob.

Here is my sketch from earlier this evening. White gel pen
15X70 Binos/ 20:20UT - 24/10/07 It's the bright dot right of Lambada Persei and south of 43 Persei. Perhaps mag 2.5 as it did seem very bright even with the strong moon light.

Perseus/ Comet 17/P Holmes looking much brighter than Delta Persei.
Very non stellar look, in fact in the binoulars I thought it looked a little yellow but that may have been something else?

I also managed a telescopic sketch with a 25mm eyepiece at 48X which showed it to be very circular with perhaps more brightness toward the left as I viewed. The fuzzy outgasing seemed evenly spread in a halo around this icy visitor. Total cloud here in Bray now so perhaps early morning or tomorrow for another look.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical SocietyP

This comet is easy to spot naked eye even with the Moon and suburban skies and really bright in binoculars. It's in the same binocular FOV as Delta Persei and in my opinion the same magnitude, i.e. 3.0. It's like a nova has appeared in Perseus!

I'd agree with that mag. estimate.
BTW, good to see you back here Gordon.

Thanks Michael...I've been absent for a while. Took a break from astronomy but hope to get back into it over the winter.

Isn't astronomy just a fantastic hobby! You just never know what the universe will throw at you!

Myself and my technically sick partner (who I may have kinda dragged out of bed) just managed to see it through hazy cloud from the middle of the street! Neither the street lights nor the near full Moon could drown this one out!

My detailed report can be found here: www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=561

Bart.

Sweet!
First image of a comet!



Taken with the ETX125PE.
Phillips Spc900 webcam (no barlow)

Here's a wide angle shot similar to the lads above..




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It's not showing up on the bigger image but I can see a darker area in the core..

Hi,

Later in the evening I tried the 4.8mm eyepiece on my 25cm f/5 refl.

Within the very bright disc, there appeared an almost stellar point of light. It was offset very near the edge.

So the comet has four components:
1. Faint diffuse halo, although thin cloud made this difficult to gauge.
2. Bright inner halo.
3. Very Bright central disc.
4. Almost stellar point, offset in the central disc.

(Yes Gordon, it does look like a bright version of the Eskimo Nebula)

It should be interesting to see how it developes (I am sure it will turn cloudy...)


John