New Naked Eye Comet - 17/P Holmes

The view through the dob tonight is spectacular and the pic below does not do it justice at all.



Canon Eos 300D,
90mm short tube refractor
iso 800
4seconds
26october 21.20pm

and a widefield one. This is 10 seconds iso 800

Nice images there Trevor. Just to complete the set from Kerry here is an image close up showing the nucleus and the coma. Taken with a webcam through the 222mm Dob. Just 156 frames processed in Registax 4

Great images everyone.
That's a particularly good one Michael.
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?

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.