[AZ-Observing] Comet Holmes Tuesday night

I finally got a chance to see the comet on the meridian from Hovatter North, 
one of the better dark sky sites in western Arizona.  It was Tuesday night with 
skies so transparent that the Gegenschein was giving sunburn.  The comet was 
visible to the naked eye as a distinct fuzzy spot.  It filled the field of a 
40mm wide-field eyepiece with my 25? Obsession.  There were lots of background 
stars shining through the thing which helped give it a 3D appearance.  One side 
is a perfect half-sphere with a striking, razor-sharp boundary.  The other side 
just smears off rapidly.  Couldn?t see any goings-on in the central area nor 
any convincing glows in the wake.  The yellow-gold color was still apparent in 
the 80mm finder, but it was oddly colorless to me in the 25? view.  Although it 
has faded as it expanded, it is still a glorious sight at any aperture.

Paul Knauth

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