Updated 17P/Holmes Observations

I was unable to make any observations last night due to poor weather.
Today and tonight we've been under a thick layer of smoke (presumably
drifted over 800 miles from California), but I was nevertheless able to
make a new series of images. The comet has grown to nearly 1 million
kilometers, making it the second largest thing in the Solar System after
the Sun. At this rate it may be larger than the Sun by tomorrow night.

Through binoculars, the comet appeared a little brighter than two nights
ago, but that may be because there was no Moon up yet. It certainly
looked larger, and is still showing a pale yellow coloration. Other than
its unusually large size, it now appears very much like other comets
I've seen, with a significant gradient between the center and outside of
the coma.

The latest images and contour plot are at
http://www.cloudbait.com/gallery/comet/holmes.html

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:
I was unable to make any observations last night due to poor weather.
Today and tonight we've been under a thick layer of smoke (presumably
drifted over 800 miles from California), but I was nevertheless able to
make a new series of images. The comet has grown to nearly 1 million
kilometers, making it the second largest thing in the Solar System after
the Sun. At this rate it may be larger than the Sun by tomorrow night.

Through binoculars, the comet appeared a little brighter than two nights
ago, but that may be because there was no Moon up yet. It certainly
looked larger, and is still showing a pale yellow coloration. Other than
its unusually large size, it now appears very much like other comets
I've seen, with a significant gradient between the center and outside of
the coma.

The latest images and contour plot are at
http://www.cloudbait.com/gallery/comet/holmes.html



Chris,

Good stuff ! Thanks for sharing.


Regards

Bill

Outstanding job of capturing, analysing and presenting the comet data on
your site. Thankyou for creating and sharing it.

Very nice Chris. Thanks.

Errol
Pasnola.org