17P

I finally pluck up courage and took my Bresser scope for a spin and I wasn't disappointed!

The past weeks, there were news about Comet Holmes (17P) which seemed to have gone up in a giant blast that allowed its brilliance to shoot up more than a million times, which could be seen along the constellation Perseus along the northeastern sky. This piece of 'flying rock' is making its rounds within the vicinity of Jupiter and Mars. Since its 'explosion' its magnitude is so bright that it can be made out with the naked eye. The binoculars would also be able to put it on its sight easily.

But when using a telescope and especially with a big aperture, the glory of Holmes can be fully appreciated. What happened was that the comet's tiny, solid nucleus puffed out a huge cloud of dust, and the dust is being lit by sunlight. Day by day the cloud spread out wider, so that by last weekend the “star” was starting to look like a tiny, round disk. Since then the disk has been getting a bit wider every night, as the dust spreads. Its overall brightness has not changed.

That was what I saw this night through my 152mm (6 inch) Bresser! Despite the cold, with the excitement of having joined in the opportunity with other people who have seen this comet elsewhere in the world and coupled with my layers of warm clothing, I managed to stay out in the balcony of the College and watched that amazing scene till my hearts content! :-)

I wanted to grab a picture of it through the HPr707 digicam but it wasn't possible. Instead, I just borrowed the picture here taken by Gregory J. Strike (Kaukana, Wisconsin, USA) with his 8" f/6 Dobsonian on Canon Rebel XT camera.