Comet Holmes photographed from Timonium
Tim Hickman, an amateur astronomer in Timonium, working from the back yard of his home in Timonium, has captured a nice image of Comet Holmes. The once-dim comet brightened suddenly last week and has stirred excitement among backyard stargazers around the world.
Here's what Tim had to say last night about seeing the comet:
"Frank: As you have undoubtedly heard, Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly brightened to a naked-eye comet on Oct. 24th. After several nights of rain, we in Baltimore got a chance to view it tonight. Naked eye, it looks like a new star in Perseus. Its brightness appears to be between alpha and delta Perseus (ED: two stars of the constellation Perseus) which, with it, form a triangle. It's easy to see even with the moon up. In binoculars you can see it is a fuzzy ball and not a star-like point.
"With my 12.5" Starmaster telescope it shows up as a very unusual object. It has a small, star-like nucleus with a large glowing ball around it, inside of which is an off-centered bright area which could be the beginning of a tail. I have attached a photo of it I took in my back yard in Timonium tonight at 10 p.m. Cheers, Tim Hickman."
Comments
Frank / Tim, that is an amazing picture. I only wish I had 3 grand to drop on a telescope! I would also love to know what type of camera Tim used.
Posted by: Patrick | October 28, 2007 10:38 AM
Patrick: Me, too. But there is no need to spend that much for a decent telescope. See my article on getting started in astronomy: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/bal-starrynights031806,0,6618155.story
Posted by: frank roylance | October 28, 2007 7:22 PM
thanks tim nice work
Posted by: me | October 29, 2007 12:29 AM
Hi, Frank. Even with a pair of ordinary binoculars, the comet is definitely a "wow!" object. With my (relatively inexpensive) 8" dobsonian-mounted telescope, I could see the "shell" structure in the outer coma and the beginnings of the tail around the bright center area. Very cool.
Posted by: Lucy Albert | October 29, 2007 7:55 AM
Hi Frank, Hope you've had a chance to see the Comet. Its a strange one.
I'm going to set up my scope on the N/E side of town @ Parkville H.S. (track side) on Putty Hill on Tuesday 6:45-7:45pm. If any of your readers wanna have a look, its open to the public.
Posted by: StarmanJer | October 30, 2007 12:27 PM
I think the research you do is really amazing. We are doing a project on this in school and I just thought I'd comment how interesting it is.
Posted by: rosie | October 30, 2007 1:00 PM
Jer: I have seen it, twice with my 10x50 binocs and once with my little ETX telescope. It is an oddball, but very bright, and well-positioned for anyone to spot with binoculars, at a convenient hour. A great opportunity to get the kids outside and show them a celestial rarity. And skies will be clear all week. Nobody should miss this.
Posted by: frank roylance | October 30, 2007 1:26 PM
Hello
Thankyou for your lovely photograph. I am in England and have just come in from watching from 7pm to 10pm this amazing comet and a friend has been taking photos as well. We hope they will turn out as good as yours.
It has been such a clear night here. My small grandchildren have been able to spot it so easily. It is so conveniently placed in that triangle at present. I encourage anyone to go out and look.You don't need a telescope or binoculars although obviously they improve the sighting.
ED: The photo is not ours. It was taken by Sean Walker, in Chester, NH
Posted by: Barbara Waldron | October 30, 2007 6:24 PM
HI All,
I too, am quite amazed with this brightening of 17P Holmes. However, to me this just causes more questions. What caused the brightening? Could it have been an impact of some sort? If so, has it's orbit been changed? What about the object that hit it? On a comet that has a 6.88 year cycle, I would like these answered pretty quickly!
Posted by: Brian | October 30, 2007 7:57 PM
I finally got to see the comet. (cloudy nights). it was magnificent in my Skymaster 25x100 Binos. As an experiment I took a picture using a Canon EOS Rebel digital with 300ml lens, a time exposure of about 15 secs. Then using the magnify on the camera it came up beautiful as I had seen in the binos.
Posted by: Alex Pendrigh | October 30, 2007 11:16 PM