Huge comet outburst reported, 17P/Holmes |
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Huge comet outburst reported, 17P/Holmes |
 Oct 26 2007, 03:36 AM
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#31
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 Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 2228 Joined: 1-December 04 From: Marble Falls, Texas, USA Member No.: 116  |
First of all, you guys in the UK have no monopoly on lousy weather correlated with astronomical phenomena. However, I am experiencing a random anomaly here.
 This is really a beautiful little comet. We luckily have cloudless skies here, so I could easily identify it with my naked eyes. I could almost convince myself that if I slightly averted my eyes, it appeared as an extended object. In my 8-20x50 binos it was clearly a fuzzball, so I brought out my little 90 mm scope so I could observe it on a steady tripod. I saw no sign of a tail. The coma was circular, with the nucleus slightly off center. The color was a pretty, golden yellow. I couldn't see any of the green that some of the on-line astrophotographs show, but I was using a rather small scope. It appeared slightly brighter than delta Persei, which is a mag 3 star, so I can believe reports that experienced brightness estimators have been calling it 2.6-2.8 recently. -------------------- ...Tom
I'm not a Space Fan, I'm a Space Exploration Enthusiast. |
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Oct 26 2007, 03:37 AM
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#32
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
QUOTE (Stu @ Oct 25 2007, 10:42 AM)  I've about as much chance of seeing Holmes as I have of hearing a knock on my door and opening it to find a rain-soaked Keira Knightley standing there, shivering, asking if she can beg a towel because she's just moved in next door and has locked herself out...  Slim odds indeed, Stu, and I share your frustration...although I'm personally hoping for Raquel Welch or Connie Chung sick of the damn smoke (hey, I'm old, and not too far from Hollywood!) 
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Oct 26 2007, 02:14 PM
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#33
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Guests |
Yep, horribly grey and gloomy here again.
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Oct 26 2007, 03:41 PM
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#34
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 40 Joined: 24-January 06 From: USA Member No.: 659 |
We're usually blessed with clear skies...but unfortunately I've lost my Astroscan's viewfinder!
 Have never lost anything pertaining to astronomy equipment before. Will rummage through that closet...What a nice surprise that comet has given us. |
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Oct 26 2007, 03:44 PM
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#35
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 Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93 |
I got a chance to see it last night. Very obvious in Perseus, and clearly nonstellar in the 10x50. The 20x80's showed a nice round little ball, brighter towards the middle, with a clear boundary between the edge of the coma and space.
It would figure something like this would happen in the middle of the full moon! But it was still clearly visible anyways, and this is from Austin, TX. -------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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Oct 26 2007, 09:02 PM
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#36
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 648 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Subotica Member No.: 384 |
I have just saw her...
 If weather is not too lousy at your places go out with pair of binoculars and look up... It is really easy thing to find, bright as delta Persei. So if you saw a comet before go out and see bright comet with no tail...and if you didn't wellll it's not so bad even for beginers... If you got telescope use it... God luck!!! -------------------- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.
Jules H. Poincare My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr... |
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Oct 27 2007, 05:49 AM
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#37
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
I just saw it from downtown Calgary. It's easy to pick out if you know where to look.
Still very much stellar in appearance. It'll be interesting to watch it develop over the next few days. |
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Oct 27 2007, 06:46 PM
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#38
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2918 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Perfect sky ...but (too) perfect Moon. Easily visible anyway. Look HUGE with binoculars at 10X.
I'm looking forward to see how it'll look like in another week with dark skies. -------------------- |
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Oct 28 2007, 04:51 AM
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#39
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2228 Joined: 1-December 04 From: Marble Falls, Texas, USA Member No.: 116 |
Yeah, the moon is about as large as it gets. But thankfully it is rising ever later than the comet. 17P seems to be maintaining its brightness while slowly increasing in diameter. You've got to love surprises like this.
-------------------- ...Tom
I'm not a Space Fan, I'm a Space Exploration Enthusiast. |
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Oct 28 2007, 03:33 PM
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#40
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 98 Joined: 29-July 05 From: Amsterdam, NL Member No.: 448 |
According to a short article on SpaceWeather.com, the spherical cloud is now larger than Jupiter! (In absolute terms.) Also, the apparent brightness has been estimated to be ~2.1 or nearly that of Polaris, and "to the naked eye, it is no longer a simple point of light." We've had largely unfavorable conditions here in the Netherlands, but hopefully things clear up some night soon.
http://www.spaceweather.com/ |
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Oct 28 2007, 04:27 PM
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#41
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
QUOTE (NMRguy @ Oct 28 2007, 04:33 PM) The 3 frame animation and comparison to Jupiter image states the gas has an approx. 2.4 km/s mean velocity. Which velocity would that be? It can't be radial because 2.4 km/s gives over 200 000 km covered in just 1 day, while Jupiter's radius is 70-ish thousand km. The math doesn't add up somewhere. A figure of say 300 m/s sounds more plausible. -------------------- |
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Oct 28 2007, 06:01 PM
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#42
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14431 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
After 4 days of complete and continuous cloud coverage, the sky has totally cleared in the last 2 hours. It's not even fully dark, but it was so so obvious to the naked eye - and thru the binos - just extraordinary.
It looked - just thru binos - exactly like this - http://spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/24oc...Eric-Allen1.jpg Extraordinary. Doug |
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Oct 28 2007, 06:24 PM
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#43
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 The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
QUOTE (djellison @ Oct 28 2007, 07:01 PM) After 4 days of complete and continuous cloud coverage, the sky has totally cleared in the last 2 hours. It's not even fully dark, but it was so so obvious to the naked eye - and thru the binos - just extraordinary. Glad SOMEONE in the UK is seeing it at last. Up here in Kendal after a day of glorious blue skies it's cloudy again and spitting (cue Peter kay voice: "Spitting! It's spitting!") with rain so it looks like I've had it tonight as well. Not happy. Not happy at all.
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Oct 28 2007, 07:20 PM
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#44
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
QUOTE (Stu @ Oct 28 2007, 07:24 PM) Not happy. Not happy at all. If it makes you feel better, you're not the only one. The entire last week has been nothing but clouds and rain here as well. Sigh. -------------------- |
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Oct 28 2007, 07:57 PM
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#45
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Just poked my head outside and I can see a slightly brighter patch of sky where the Moon must be... fingers crossed for a little later...!!
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