Periodic Comet Holmes (17P)

All images copyright Gain Lee

It seemed that the whole world had seen and studied Periodic Comet Holmes (17P) as we cast our eyes sorrowfully towards England's week-long blanket cloud. But today's gloriously sunny afternoon slipped into a starry night and we now proudly present you with our celebration!

We set up at our local Huddersfield Observatory before darkness and used binoculars to sweep for a daylight sighting. Using 10x50 binoculars, Holmes was easy to spot even in a blue sky and was soon visible to the naked eye. The tail is directly behind the front of the comet and therefore not visible to us. We followed the comet into darkness with a combination of naked eye, binocular and telescope observations, with Gain imaging in the brief window before moonrise.


In the light of the risen moon we decided that this adventure was coming to a close temporarily and proceeded to shut down the observatory, bidding a grateful 'goodnight' to the clear, night sky as we closed the dome. So oblivious we had been of the skies beyond Perseus that we were shocked to step out into a wintry downpour. Our determination to grab that first bit of clear sky had again paid off and we were doubly grateful that the telescope had been put to bed before the rains had arrived. Remaining on the steps for protection from the rain, we beheld a night-time rainbow (moonbow!) which entertained us on our wet jog to the car.

"Amateur astronomers the world over have been stunned and amazed by the weirdest new object to appear in the sky in memory. And it's one of the brightest, too.Less than a week ago Periodic Comet Holmes17P was a tiny, roughly 17th-magnitude nonentity out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Then on Wednesday, October 24th, skywatchers looked up to see a bright new yellow-orange "star" shining in Perseus. For no apparent reason, the comet had brightened about a millionfold to shine at close to magnitude 2.5. That made it plain to see even in the bright moonlight and through all but the worst light pollution. It looked truly starlike; even high telescopic magnification barely resolved it as anything larger at first. But within a day it had expanded into a perfectly round, bright little disk with a tiny nucleus as seen in binoculars and telescopes. It looked like no comet ever seen.It's star like appearance gives way to a fuzzy blob once you point a pair of binoculars or a telescope toward it."

Extract from 'Sky & Telescope' magazine