Comet 17P/Holmes 2007

On Oct. 24, 2007, periodic Comet Holmes erupted and brightened dramatically to magnitude 2.5 so you can now see it with telescopes, binoculars and even the unaided eye.  The angular size of the surrounding cloud on Oct. 28 was about 5 arc minutes.  Here is a side by side comparison with Jupiter.  The comet is in the constellation Perseus as shown in the labeled photo below.

The pictures shown on this page were taken from the Augustana Observatory.  Some were taken with an ST-2000XM CCD camera mounted on the Celestron C-14 telescope.  The angular field of view of the photos is 16.4 x 12.3 arcmin.  Others were taken with a Nikon D70 - on a tripod or located at prime focus of the C-14 telescope.  Click on the images or the captions to see larger versions of these images. Photos 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13 were taken by David Renneke. Photos 2, 6 and 8 were taken by Lee Carkner.  Photo 11 was taken by Joe Owczarzak.

Photo 1.  11:45 pm, 28-Oct-07.  CCD, 1.0 s exposure
Photo 2.  9:45 pm, 29-Oct-07.  D70 at prime focus 
Photo 3.  11:30 pm, 29-Oct-07.  CCD, 1.0 s exposure
Photo 6.  8:30 pm, 29-Oct-07.  D70 on a tripod
Photo 7.  11:55 pm, 30-Oct-07.  CCD, 1.0 s exposure
Photo 8.  9:48 pm, 31-Oct-07.  D70 at prime focus
Photo 9.  10:00 pm, 1-Nov-07.  CCD, 2.0 s exposure
Photo 10.  10:25 pm, 2-Nov-07.  CCD, 2.0 s exposure
Photo 11.  9:23 pm, 4-Nov-07.  CCD, 2.0 s exposure
Photo 12.  7:30 pm, 6-Nov-07.  CCD, 4.0 s exposure
Photo 13.  11:04 pm, 12-Nov-07.  CCD, 4.0 s exposure

See the Comet Holmes photo gallery for more pictures taken from locations around the world.

Last update:  Nov. 12, 2007


Photo 1.  Oct. 28.  CCD
 Larger (750 x 562), Larger 2 (same orientation as below)

Photo 2.  Oct. 29.  D70 digital camera
Larger (750), original (1504 x 1000 - click twice)
Photo 3.  Oct. 29.  CCD
  Larger (750 x 562)
Notice that the cloud has grown in 24 hours.

Notice that the comet is moving to the right with respect to the star field.  This is most evident in comparing photos 3 and 7 where some of the same stars appear in both pictures.

Photo 7.  Oct. 30.  CCD
  Larger (750 x 562)

Photo 8.  Oct. 31.  D70 digital camera
Larger (750), original (1504 x 1000 - click twice)
Note the cool blue and red stars above the comet!
Photo 9.  Nov. 1.  CCD
  Larger (750 x 562), original (1600 x 1200 - click twice)
Notice that the cloud is still growing. The blue star and its
companion (from Photo 8) appear at the up left hand corner.

Photo 10.  Nov. 2.  CCD,  Larger (750 x 562)
Photo 11.  Nov. 4.  CCD,  Larger (750 x 562)

Photo 12.  Nov. 6.  CCD,  Larger (750 x 562)
Photo 13.  Nov. 12.  CCD,  Larger (750 x 562)

Photo 4.  Oct. 29.  Lee Carkner with the D70.  Larger
Photo 5.  Oct. 29.  The CCD.  Larger

Photo 6.  Oct. 29.  Larger (1504 x 1000 - click twice).   Sky map.