17P/Holmes Oct 25

Jamie Dillon

We had a lot of high stuff in the sky above Salinas last night, which made the moonlight even brighter than usual. And there was this star in Perseus that didn't belong there, punching thru anything. Looked orangey naked eye.

After catching up on all the excited notes on TAC, I was sticking with binocs. Clearly non-stellar in 10x50's, dark orange in color. And I saw a fan shape, more or less triangular, too. Wasn't ready to credit it as real till Gortatowsky said the same thing. Thanks.

... and looking at Venus, Saturn and Regulus marching up thru the morning sky. Jo and I were also noticing the other morning how they're in descending order of brightness as you go up, while they're meanwhile in dramatically ascending order of actual size and intrinsic brightness. Big jumps - Earthsize planet, gas giant, big star.

DDK