17p holmes + sketches

Alexander Avtanski

I'm not going to repeat what others already said about the comet - the descriptions pretty much match mine. The difference I noticed since yesterday is that now I could see clearly the bright pinpoint nucleus.

I looked for any ring-like appearance of the comma - at times it looked a tiny bit like ring indeed, but the more I looked the more it seemed to be an illusion caused by the contrast with the bright central part. If there is a ring, I can't see it.

Could not detect any color this time - if any, it looked bluish as everything else in the sky. Maybe this was because of the moisture in the air and bright moonlight.

Here are a couple of sketches that I did today:

http://astro.avtanski.net/sketches/17P_Holmes_20071028_1.png
http://astro.avtanski.net/sketches/17P_Holmes_20071028_2.png

(Those are not in scale with the sketch from couple of days ago.)

This comet is putting quite a show. I wonder if it will become naked eye _extended_ object... That would be cool.

Regards,

- Alex