| Comet 17/P Holmes has brightened from 17th to 2.5th magnitude on 24/10/2007. Therefore it became an easy naked-eye target, even with the full-moon in the sky. The brightening was caused by the eruption of a lot of dust. Why exactly this has happened, is unclear as I write this text. This image of 17/P Holmes shows the comet with the expanding dust cloud, the fan shaped bright feature next to the false nucleus and the green emission from fluorescent atoms ionized by the solar wind. |
|
Telescope:
|
150mm f/5 Newton telescope, 750mm focal length, mounted on Super-Polaris GEM |
|
Camera
|
Nikon D200 |
|
Exposure:
|
13x15s, ISO 800 |
|
Date:
|
28th, October 2007 |
|
Processing:
|
Stacking, Histogram adjustment. |
This image is a montage of the picture above, and a moon image shot with the same equipment, to give a sense of the apparent size of the comet.
This image shows the area of the sky the Comet was located in while the picture above has been taken, take note of the haze and the nearly full moon. The lens used was a Nikon AF 20mm f/2.8.
I took this image of the moon shortly after the imaging the comet with the same equipment.