[AZ-Observing] Re: Comet Holmes tonight
- From: Stan Gorodenski <stanlep@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:01:52 -0700
Brian Skiff wrote:
> I second the recommendation to drop everything and go look
>at the comet. No, city lights + Full Moon are not a problem.
>This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, pals and gals!
> In our 16-inch Cassegrainian on Mars Hill, the comet nucleus
>is clearly double inside an eccentric almost annular-looking
>inner coma.
>
What a nice comet! I sure didn't expect this. Mark said it was golden
white, and even in my 16" with my 16mm eyepiece it has a brownish, maybe
gold, tint to it. I see more than a double nucleus. With my 20mm
eyepiece I see a bright star like nucleus at the head of a bright
slightly fan shaped central region of the comet. At 16mm the star like
nucleus resolves itself into three points of light, each almost equal in
magnitude and all three forming an equilateral triangle. The resolution
into three parts comes and goes with the seeing conditions. At times I
see a double nucleus and then at times I see three definite distinct
points of light.
Stan
>The brighter nucleus is dead-centered in a perfectly
>circular, hard-edged outer coma.
> It is very easy to see naked-eye, and obvious if you know
>the constellation Perseus. It appears completely stellar naked-eye,
>and as it was rising tonight was even twinkling like the neighboring
>stars. That's how small the nucleus is. I'm making it just a bit
>brighter than gamma Persei (V=2.93), and about 0.3 mag brighter than
>delta Persei (V=3.01), so call it mag 2.7 or 2.8 (Oct 25.1 UT).
>
>\Brian
>--
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>
>
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