Image Details
Date: October 26, 2007
Author: Tim Doucette
Telescope: C9.25
Mount: Celestron AS-GT
Guiding: Orion 80mm guidescope via Vesta Pro webcam
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel 300D
Site: DSE Observatory
Exposure: 1x10sec @ ISO 100
Effective Focal Length: 2332mm
Effective Focal Ratio: f/10
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Description
This was a surprise outburst of comet Holmes. Normally this comet would take a large telescope to even see (magnitude 17). In just one night it became visible to the unaided eye (in the constellation of Perseus, magnitude 3), brightening by a factor of nearly 500,000x! Scientists are unclear as to why the comet suddenly brightened. One possibility is that the comet ruptured, exposing ice, which is ionized by the sun's radiation. Big question is, what caused it to do that ? My son has a very different answer to that question...
This comet was discovered by Edwin Holmes (London England) on November 6, 1892 and has an orbital period of 6.88 years.
These two images were taken 24 hours apart and as you can see the tail is expanding. This is not the typical view of a comet. Since it is now moving away from the sun (and us), we are looking through the tail to the head of the comet. I had many friends look at this object in sheer amazement.
