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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | In the past 24 hours, a spectacular event has taken place involving the periodic comet P/Holmes (17P). Its predicted brightness is about magnitude 17 however last night it was discovered by the Spanish amateur, Juan Antonio Henríquez Santana to have undergone a tremendous outburst having attained magnitude 10 at that time (Oct 24 0h UT). It was a similar outburst in 1892 that led to its discovery. Latest reports (Seiichi Yoshida, Oct 24 13h UT) indicate that it is stellar in appearance and 3RD MAGNITUDE in brightness: so bright in fact that it is readily visible to the unaided eye. That's almost one million times brighter than normal ! Fortunately for UK-based observers the comet is well placed for observation and is visible throughout the entire night. Its position at 0h UT tonight (Oct 24/25) will be: R.A. 03h 53.0m, Dec. +50 08' Its appearance will probably be that of a fairly bright naked-eye star moving at an apparent rate of close to 10 arcmin per day at PA 298 deg. It is currently 1.63 AU (245 million km) from the Earth. Observations are strongly encouraged and should be reported to Jonathan Shanklin, Director of the Comet Section.
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Reports... ''I confirmed the unbelievable super outburst of 17P/Holmes beside Tsurumi River in Yokohama City, Kanagawa, Japan! It is visible with naked eyes in a large city!
17P/Holmes
2007 Oct. 24.55 UT: m1=3.7, Dia.=-, DC=9... 10x66R (10x) ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)
2007 Oct. 24.55 UT: m1=3.5, Dia.=-, DC=9... NE ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)''
Seiichi Yoshida ''After hearing of Ramon Naves' observation last night on comet-images, I looked at 17P/Holmes with a 25cm reflector at 76x and 214x on Oct. 24, 4:10 UT. The comet was a mag. 7.1 "star" with a yellow hue. This morning (Oct. 24, 11:15UT), the moon was out of the sky and seeing was excellent. To my amazement, 17P had brightened to naked eye visibility being nearly equal to 48 Per at visual mag. 4.0. In the same telescope, the coma showed an intense, nearly stellar false nucleus about 2.5"-3" across set in a small, 10" diameter, much fainter,fuzzy
disklike coma. The nucleus was distinctly yellow. The comet's appearance was very reminiscent of McNaught last winter when seen in the daytime sky. What a sight!''
Bob King
Duluth, Minn., USA Ephemerides Finder Chart |
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Dear colleagues,
17P/Holmes is brightening furthermore within two hours. It is about to
be a 2-mag object soon!
* Morris's web format:
17P/Holmes
2007 Oct. 24.63 UT: m1=3.2, Dia.=-, DC=9... 10x66R (10x) ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)
2007 Oct. 24.63 UT: m1=3.0, Dia.=-, DC=9... NE ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)
* ICQ format:
17P/Holmes
IIIYYYYMnL YYYY MM DD.DD eM/mm.m:r AAA.ATF/xxxx /dd.ddnDC /t.ttmANG ICQ XX*OBSxx
17 2007 10 24.63 I 3.2 YG 6.6R 10 9 ICQ XX YOS04
17 2007 10 24.63 I 3.0 YG 0.0E 1 9 ICQ XX YOS04
Best regards,
--
Seiichi Yoshida
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Location: Nr Tavistock, Devon, UK | Sorry to ask but where is the best place to look when the sun goes down, North/East/South/West? I really want 2 see this and will it look a lot brighter than all the other stars for example will it look as bright as Venus or Brighter/dimmer? Look forward 2 your reply thanks. |
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Hi Jamie Look to the NE after dark. The comet is in Perseus and looks almost exactly like a star or Nova. See my site for a recent image. I'm looking for a better chart at the minute. This is something that everyone here should observe, it's a major event!. The good thing is that it's visible all night and highest in the sky before dawn! I am washed out with cirrus clouds!!  |
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Location: Nr Tavistock, Devon, UK | Martinastro78 - 24/10/2007 17:28
Hi Jamie Look to the NE after dark. The comet is in Perseus and looks almost exactly like a star or Nova. See my site for a recent image. I'm looking for a better chart at the minute. This is something that everyone here should observe, it's a major event!. The good thing is that it's visible all night and highest in the sky before dawn! I am washed out with cirrus clouds!!
Thanks very much for the info, I'll try and find a good spot so I can look @ it.   |
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Location: Nr Tavistock, Devon, UK | Martinastro78 - 24/10/2007 17:28
Hi Jamie Look to the NE after dark. The comet is in Perseus and looks almost exactly like a star or Nova. See my site for a recent image. I'm looking for a better chart at the minute. This is something that everyone here should observe, it's a major event!. The good thing is that it's visible all night and highest in the sky before dawn! I am washed out with cirrus clouds!!
Could we get a meteor shower/s from this? |
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Location: Nr Tavistock, Devon, UK | It's come over a bit cloudy now so I may not see it. 
Edited by Lightningfox92 24/10/2007 13:05
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Location: Ilminster, Somerset | Crikey.. this is exciting and unexpected good news! The cloud is supposed to clear briefly tonight, so I'll do my best.
Edited by Goatherd 24/10/2007 13:55
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | This is incredible! Dear colleagues,
17P/Holmes got brighter furthermore! Perseus does not look "Perseus"
familiar to us due to the bright stellar object now.
* Morris's web format:
17P/Holmes
2007 Oct. 24.71 UT: m1=2.9, Dia.=-, DC=9... 10x66R (10x) ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)
2007 Oct. 24.72 UT: m1=2.8, Dia.=-, DC=9... NE ...Seiichi Yoshida (Kanagawa, Japan)
* ICQ format:
17P/Holmes
IIIYYYYMnL YYYY MM DD.DD eM/mm.m:r AAA.ATF/xxxx /dd.ddnDC /t.ttmANG ICQ XX*OBSxx
17 2007 10 24.71 I 2.9 YG 6.6R 10 9 ICQ XX YOS04
17 2007 10 24.72 I 2.8 YG 0.0E 1 9 ICQ XX YOS04
Best regards,
--
Seiichi Yoshida
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | I don't believe there will be a meteor shower Jamie. Make sure everybody sees this comet tonight and get as many images as you can for this incredible surprise. This comet has done this before when it was first discovered by Holmes. What interesting times we are living in. Don't forget LONEOS is also a faint naked eye object low in the west AND there could be an aurora at some stage.  |
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Location: JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS, UK | OH NO!!! And all I have is cloud at present! How long will it be visible for? |
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Location: Ilminster, Somerset | According to this article we won't be able to predict how bright the outburst will be or how long it will last. It's not looking good cloudwise here either, not for a while.
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Location: JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS, UK | Sorry I meant to say how many days/ weeks will it be viewable for regardless of brightness? |
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Got it and it looks like a Nova in Perseus! 
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Hope this helps Matthew... Incredible comet eruption: from under 17th to 3rd magnitude in hours!
A most amazing eruption is occuring on comet 17P/Holmes which was at 17 mag. at best but on October 24 suddenly began to brighten like crazy: Now (afternoon UTC) it has already reached 3rd magnitude and is easily visible to the naked eye, as reports from Japan indicate: "Perseus does not look 'Perseus' familiar to us due to the bright stellar object now." The comet looks like a bright, yellow star, and only magnification reveals a fuzzy coma around the dusty core. Holmes was discovered in 1892 thanks to a similar outburst, and hope is that the further development will be similar now: the coma should expand over time but stay bright for a week or more. "Following the initial stages of the [1892] outburst, the comet's total magnitude faded only very slowly and it remained visible to the unaided eye for about 3 weeks," advises comet guru John Bortle: "During this interval the coma expanded dramatically (as might be expected), reaching 20'-30' in size before its outer regions began to drop below the sky background." Moreover, there was a second outburst "of almost equal amplitude to the first one, about 75 days following its 1892 November brightening. Thus, I would urge everyone to watch very carefully for a possible repeat of this secondary event about the turn of the year."
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Location: JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS, UK | Great thanks for that - so sometime yet then although brightness will initially drop and then increase perhaps. |
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Location: Maghera, N.Ireland | Yes but completely unpredictable, lets hope it follows its past behaviour. Anybody else seen this yet?. Short report... This evening I set the gear up early and waited for darkness to fall. Cold, dry, calm with Moon 1 day from full in east. Sky was completely covered with dense cirrostratus which was not good at all, in fact the trans was terrible. As darkness fell I was amazed to see 17P/Holmes through the cloud as an easy naked eye object in the NE sky looking exactly like a brilliant Nova in Perseus to the SE of Alpha. This was incredible and really broke up the constellation which I have seen unchanged for more than 10 years with the exception of the predictable mood swings of Beta Persei.
With the naked eye it looked nothing like a comet but instead an easy orange-red star which looked to be around mag +3.0 or slightly brigther. In fact it looked very bright as it rose and I thought it faded ever so slightly as it climbed in height although this could have been the cirrus. In binos the colour was really striking and in the 32mm eyepiece of the 8.5" F/7 it had a tiny coma. In the 9.7mm I could see a glorious golden coloured disk with a compact very well condensed coma with sharp edges. The coma looked very lively. I could not see a tail. I filled my memory card with images and made several sketches through the eyepiece and binos. What an incredible sight and unexpected surprise for us observers. An amazing Halloween treat!.
Mag+ 3.0? Dia: 1' D.C:9
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Location: Ilminster, Somerset | No luck here at all. We've had solid cloud cover all evening. Those photos are truly astonishing when you think how faint this object was only a short time ago. I really hope we get a clear spell while it's still bright.
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Location: Durham | Wow, this is amazing! Totally cloudy here but now I think I'm going to have to stay up all week just in case we get a break! |
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Major Outburst Of Comet Holmes - Naked Eye Object With Large Coma
