G4LED
Joined: 24 Nov 2006
Posts: 22
Location: Holmfirth UK
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 Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject: Comet Holmes at last! |
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Comet Holmes at last!
Worth the wait here in the Uk. Last night for the first cloudless sky (almost) in ages and the finest comet since Hale-Bopp. What a fuzzball. Not to mention the magnitude completely altering the appearance of Perseus. The unmistakable trio of bright obects well above and to the right of Capella, so distinctive, screwing up normality. Popped the 8mm wide-field Hyperion in place to see a translucent tennis ball with central nucleus of varying brightness/patches, even spikes. Awesome and the photons take a quarter of an hour to reach us; gulp.
An hour of fixation in the open, slightly windy but 11 degreees C more than tolerable. Will it have moved a little by this evening?-doubt it will be really evident.
The easiest way to find Holmes and understand the orbit etc is log on to
http://www.shadowandsubstance.com/
All in glorious colour and easy-to-follow graphics. How can that comet thing appear so BIG?.
g4led
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"Holme Valley Weather" Davis Vantage Pro+ station; XT10 Orion Intelliscope(frontspiece) |
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