Holmes From My Driveway

Greg Claytor

Holmes is located below 30 degrees, so it's pretty low on the horizon. There is a hazy marine layer above Morgan Hill making observing at low angles a challenge. Nevertheless, I was able locate it using my 8" newt. I tried almost every eyepiece I have starting with 24mm Panoptic, 15mm Expanse, 9mm Expanse, 10mm Sirius Plossl and a 26mm Celestron Plossl in that order.

I discovered that the 24mm Panoptic and 26mm Celestron Plossl provided the best views; although the Panoptic was clearly the winner. I also discovered the two are parafocal, something I didn't know! The 15mm Expanse was a little too dark, but I think it would be fine at a darker location like Coe. I also tried every filter I had (80a blue, 25 red, 58 green, 15 yellow and SkyGlow) and discovered that no filter was best.

At 50x it has a pretty good size disk just to the south of a bright star, but envelopes the star. It kinda looks like a nebula with an off center central star. I'm pretty confident that I observed a tail leading away from the star. I was able to see that when I moved Holmes to the upper left of the field of view.