Update: October 28, 2007: I just went outside to look at Holmes through my ’scope, and it’s changed significantly since two nights ago! The cloud surrounding the nucleus is much larger (roughly the size of (but much brighter than) the nucleus of the Andromeda Galaxy, which I took a quick look at to compare), and has taken on a distinctive edge-brightened appearance, like a thick soap bubble. I suspect it will start to fade now; as it expands it will get thinner and reflect less sunlight. There appear to be two nuclei; one is bright and slightly off-center from the cloud, and the other a dimmer but sharper pinpoint significantly off-center. It’s possible the second light is a background star: I’ll observe again in a couple of hours and see if the comet has moved relative to it. The comet as a whole has moved noticeably in two days. I am not sure I understand the shape of the cloud; I would expect it to be significantly elongated, but instead it appears to be expanding as a spherical shell, like the whole comet blew off its surface. Very weird. Update on the update: I decided to make a whole post about this after taking a new image of the comet.
So I took video of the comet on Thursday night, but it was really hard to get it centered and focused. I worked really hard, and I felt bad that it didn’t turn out as nicely as I had hoped. I decided to post the video anyway (slightly edited) so that it wasn’t a total waste of time… and it wouldn’t have been anyway, because the view through the telescope (a 12.5 inch Dobs) was fantastic!
I said in the video I thought I saw a hint of tail, but I think now it was an internal reflection in the ’scope. The Moon was very nearly full and playing havoc with the optics. The still image of the comet I posted in the video is from an earlier blog post, and the long shot image showing its placement in the sky is on my Flickr page. Flickr is loaded with great images of the comet.
It cleared up tonight, so I may try again. And Halloween is coming up, so I may haul the ’scope out and show Holmes to the costumed tykes…
October 28th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
You’re right. That is a pretty rough video, but you did manage to make it pretty entertaining, and I couldn’t help but laugh at a couple spots. Hopefully, if it’s got a tail, someone will be able to get a picture of it. That would be pretty awesome.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Hmmmm…. What is the object that I saw trailing just behind it….? Could it be that they are coming to take the cute doggy that “popped” up in the middle of the video? LOL
That was a very cool video. There is nothing like looking through a scope and seeing these objects with your own eyes. That personal experience beats all the fantastic images provided by Hubble ot any other telescope.
Keep up the good work! I had your book, Bad Astronomy, but lost it in a move… I’ll have to pick it up again.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Honest question: what’s the point of making a video of something that has no apparent movement or change? Apart from the commentary which could be a caption to a still photograph…
October 28th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Is anyone at the STScI talking about taking an image with the Hubble? It would be nice to get a clearer idea of what is going on.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Cleared off in the UK today, so I managed to get some photos of it will be interesting to see if it does develop a small tail with all this material that has been thrown off. The thing that really shocked me the most was the angular size of this thing, considering it’s 1.5 AU away it is huge.
If anybody wants to have a look at my snaps they’re up here: http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/2007/10/28/comet_17p_holmes
October 28th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Marco– I was hoping to make it a little more immediate. Plus, I wasn’t sure how it would look on the video. Once I brought it inside and digitized it (major pain) it wasn’t that much harder to just edit it and stick it online.
October 28th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
There are 2 nuclei visible tonight (Sunday Oct. 28, 8:30 EDT). The comet appears to be breaking up.
October 28th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I was looking at Comet Holmes tonight and it appears to have dimmed a bit, but I also thought I saw a very (and I do mean very) small hint of a tail forming.
October 28th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I finally got a look tonight — we’ve had cloud cover the last four days. Great view through a 10in Dob. I also saw two dots of light as Matt did.
Nick
October 28th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I don’t want to update this post again, so I’ll comment here: I wonder if the jet of escaping dust was aimed right at us or away from us. That would explain why it is not off-center, and possibly also why it appears edge-brightened now.
October 28th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
AARGH!! Cloudy in Fla. once again.
Imagine that.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Turn off auto-focus. =-)
Guess I should grab my binoculars and head outside to see if it’s clear(er) than it was last night.
October 28th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for the video, Phil.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Forget about the video, as it just doesn’t do it justice.
Just look the comet’s position on a map referenc as to where it is (www.spaceweather.com have one), and then go out and see it –preferably with a telescope, and if not a set of binoculars.
I gurantee you it will be worth it.
I saw it last night through a 4″ telescope and could actually see two small star-like points within it (presumabley parts of the nucleus having broken up).
Cheers
John
October 31st, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I hope somebody is doing a spectral analysis of the halo. It seems to me that, like the disappearing polar ice caps of Mars, the sudden visibility of Holmes may be indicative of an increase of solar radiation; in Holmes’s case, surpassing a tipping point causing the comet material to boil. Just a thought. You know, more evidence that global warming is caused by the sun’s natural cycles, not by humans.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
…so a freind and I went out to look at the stars the other night. We took some binoculars and lounge chairs. We had no idea of any of this and are just learning how to use a sky chart. We were pretty proud to be able to find things like the Andromeda Glxy or THe Pliedes (sp?). We wer both looking in that part of the sky when almost simultaneously we blurt out “What the &^$#& is that?!?!?”
We look at the chart and even went into the house (waking my wife w/ the excitement) to look in better books and my Celestron software. We just couldn’t figure out what it could be (no galaxy of that brightess in the spot, we didn’t think clusters looked like that) it just didn’t make sence…..until my wife stumbles on a web article on it this morning. I then google and find all kinds of stuff (like this). When it described where it was – we knew that’s what we say.
Very exciting – thought I’d share