Comet Holmes flares up

October 27 & 28: A formerly very dim comet called Holmes (17P) flared up October 24th growing many magnitudes brighter -- it went from 12.5 to 3rd magnitude which is about 1 million times increase. It's currently outside the orbit of Mars and in the southern portion of the constellation Perseus. Saturday night, Oct. 27, a day of clouds, mist, and rain, I stepped outside to a clearing sky. It took me only a second to find Holmes and view it through my 10X50 binoculars. It was a beautiful sight, though to the uninitiated, it's just a big fuzzball. That is, of course, how it actually looked... a large, brightly glowing puff with a bright dot in the center; that's how comets look "head-on" with any tail streaming behind and away from the viewer. The glow was slightly yellow or golden... quite an unusual object. Sunday night I opened Stephens for a special astronomy class observing session. I spotted the comet in the big telescope at 7:45 PM and was surprised... Two bright spots were right in the middle of the cloud looking like they might be part of the comet, oriented directly across the nucleus from each other. I watched excitedly to see if there were any changes. Alas, as the evening wore on the bright specks appeared to move off center and away from where the nucleus lay confirming they were background stars and not a part of the comet itself. Only three students showed up but it gave me two hours in which to observe the comet and attempt some images using the old nine-inch scope. They're my first telescopic comet photos. Here's one that has been heavily "Photoshopped" but it basically shows what I saw... Comet 17P/Holmes moving with three background stars showing through its coma. The comet has the astronomical community excited and that has been fun all by itself. I'll probably offer a public viewing session for Friday, Nov. 3 when the weather is predicted to bring clear skies.

Photo: Comet 17P/Holmes as it appeared at 9:34 PM, October 28. Two stars shine through the coma like headlights through fog. Photo was made using the century-old Cooley Telescope (a 9-inch refractor) and a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera - 2 seconds at ISO 1,600. Photo: James Guilford, Stephens Memorial Observatory, Hiram.