Naked Eye Comet 17/P Holmes (2007)

Ralph

I started viewing this just as it got dark taking out both my TOA-130 mounted to my G11, with my C11 on a table nearby. The Tak cools down much faster, so I spent the first hr and a half going back and forth with magnifications as high as 400x, (5mm Nagler barlowed.) The absolutely crispest most detailed views I got with the TOA were with my 7 Nagler barlowed for 285x. As I hid in the shadows of the glowing moon, at this magnification, the amazing reflecting yellow glow of cloudy dispersed light looked like a huge Yellow Eskimo Nebula to me, with a V-shaped funnel of light flaring to the north from the core. At times I could tell the core was not a pin point, leading me to believe there may have been a second component beside the core. My wife described it a beautiful glowing dandelion.

After this, I mounted my C11 to my G11 and looked at this object with greater resolution from larger aperture. The entire object was brighter with more color and the core would resonate from being a pin point to a figure 8 shape. The best resolution, crispness and details came using my 12mm Nager for approximately 230x, showing a second component near the core coming in and out of resolution, opposite the V-shaped flare of bright light. From what I can tell, this was about a thrid the size of the larger component. If this holds to be true, the two should separate in the days to come. If its not there tomorrow night, it could have simply been a back ground star.

A large fragment off the core could account for the immense flair up of this comet, if the core did infact separate to this magnitude, since that could very well have caused this huge ice dust ball, which is now reflecting light back at us.

My guess is that this intensity will fade quickly, unless it fragments more. It could also have hit something out in space, causing this immense flair up.

Regardless, its a very cool object to view, and every astronomer should take the time to view this object in the new few days to weeks, especially once the glow of the moon is gone, which may allow us to see a trailing tail also.

...Ralph

Observing Reports Observing Sites GSSP 2010, July 10 - 14
Frosty Acres Ranch
Adin, CA

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