Comet 17P/Holmes gone kaboom!

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:07 am

Saw it about 5-10 mins ago with the 25x100 bino from 35 flrs above gnd slightly <40 deg n close to due north, very nice

cataclysm · Post by **cataclysm** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:15 am

Oh my goodness! I am looking at it now through my window with the 7x50 bino. Its so bright that I can see it through clouds! Incredible!

Post by **rcj** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:00 am

finally saw it! easy with naked eye...

cataclysm · Post by **cataclysm** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:56 am

Hi all, here is a snap shot of the comet. I set it up in a haste to capture it through the window without a tracking mount, the exposures had to be short.
Pic. info:
80mm WO ZSFD
Canon 30D
Hutech IDAS LP filter
18X2.5s @ ISO3200

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:08 am

Kelvin, very nice pic. Thanks for sharing.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:29 am

David Lian, Liuming and I drove up to Dempsey (new site) last night at about 11pm to look for the comet, and we saw it with 8x32 and 10x42 binoculars, and also through a 6" refractor at 107x. We saw the star-like bright spot too. Indeed the comet is so big and bright that it was visible to our naked eyes even though the full moon was just 20-30 degrees away!

jiahao1986 · Post by **jiahao1986** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:52 am

rlow wrote:David Lian, Liuming and I drove up to Dempsey (new site) last night at about 11pm to look for the comet, and we saw it with 8x32 and 10x42 binoculars, and also through a 6" refractor at 107x. We saw the star-like bright spot too. Indeed the comet is so big and bright that it was visible to our naked eyes even though the full moon was just 20-30 degrees away!

Richard, you called me last night? Last night I was at Ubin Island with my school club, and I left my handphone in the tent, so... Anyway we also saw the comet with a 10inch dob, the brightness didn't change, but coma was a lot bigger compared to Friday morning.

It's good to hear that you all saw the comet! Thanks for calling me for ob, hope next time can join you guys!

Jia Hao

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:53 pm

When I attempted to find it with the bino at 1am it was so cloudy in the North. I think I will try again.

Cheryl · Post by **Cheryl** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:20 pm

Wow nice pic !! Cataclysm pls share how u took it, I want to take own pic too

Anyways I found this really nice simulator from NASA to play with. Hahaaa~~
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17p&orb=1

Post by **rcj** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:00 pm

current update as of October 30th on the comet:
it continues to brighten up, now about magnitude 2.4 but overall size is gradually enlarging. current coma diameter is about 480 arc-seconds across, which is bigger in apparent diameter than jupiter.