Another comet Holmes report ...

Shane Raney

Well I just finished packing up 2 small dobs (an Orion Starblast and a very old 8") and my Orion 80mm ED.. At first I just pulled out the 8" for my roommates.. Then as my neighbors and their friends got wind of what I was looking at and started lining up to take peeks at the comet and a few other celestial bodies. It wasn't long till we had over 10 people standing in my front lawn. That's when I pulled out the Starblast. The 12 or so kids loved using it.

Being new to Astronomy, I my head spun as I was bombarded with questions; "How far away is it?", "Are going to Die?". It was the children who had me running inside to get a few books, star atlases, and to print a small overhead maps of tonight's sky.

It was a madhouse.

After the last of the train left around 12:20am, I took one long deep breath and started to spend some personal time with the comet and set up my Mead DSI camera. That's when I noticed I could not locate 17b/Holmes in any of my scopes.This was around 1:20am maybe later.

Did anyone else have problems spotting it after 1:20am tonight?

-- Shane Raney

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

OMG! Its full of stars.
Golden State Star Party
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