Here it is for anyone interested. Comet Holmes is right in the center of the map:
Posted on 11/14/2007 7:06:58 PM PST by annie laurie
All right, that title is a little misleading. In fact, when I first read the original press release, my skepticism alarms went off. But it's true, the amazing Comet Holmes now has a halo that's larger than the Sun. Not bad for a comet that, until three weeks ago, was just a tiny dim dirty snowball orbiting near Jupiter.
Comet Holmes made its spectacular outburst on October 24, 2007. Formally dim enough to only be visible in the most powerful telescopes, it quickly brightened up to be seen with the unaided eye - even in light-polluted cities (like my very own Vancouver).
Astronomers from the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy recently measured the halo surrounding Comet Holmes to be 1.4 million kilometres (0.9 million miles). And as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, that makes it larger than the Sun. Of course, it's just a thin halo of gas and dust particles, but still, that's pretty impressive.
Just to get a sense of the change, Holmes has brightened by a factor of 500,000x. All this gas and dust is pouring out of a tiny nucleus only 3.6 km (2.2 miles) in diameter.
In the image captured by the Institute for Astronomy, you can make out the brighter nucleus, near the centre of the halo. And then there's a hazy tail pointing towards the lower right of the image.
Over the next few months, astronomers predict the cometary halo will expand even larger; although, it will be fading away as the dust disperses over a larger volume.
Holmes performed a similar outburst back in 1892, and it brightened again just a couple of months later. Astronomers are hoping it'll make another double outburst, just like it did before.
:’)
The tail is not visible naked-eye.
For those trying to locate it, I find it easiest to use the two stars on the handle of the Little Dipper, including the North Star, as pointers toward the area of the comet to get you started. It is quite difficult to see, though it is “bright” because it is so very diffuse. It is nearly “straight up” about midnight...
Spaceweather.com has a pretty decent map.
Nice additions, Civ, thanks! :)
Here it is for anyone interested. Comet Holmes is right in the center of the map:
Comet Holmes (left) from the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna
Kea showing the coma at 869,900 miles (1.4 million kilometers) in diameter. The white
''star'' near the center of the coma is in fact the dust-shrouded nucleus of the comet.The
sun and the planet Saturn are shown at the same scale for comparison. Credit:
University of Hawaii/CFHT (comet); NASA/Voyager (Saturn); NASA/ESA/SOHO (sun)
fyi
We are doomed. Bushes fault. Gore please save us.
Images on earlier thread.
Right next to Mirfak in Perseus.
No tail. The object erupted for as yet unknown reason and the material forms a sphere around the nucleus.
Unngh - Still snowing!
I love the photographic sky-map ... very nicely done :)
Thanks, dead!
Wassup Holmes?
i love the dirty conservative mind
;-)
The comet is fading. It was most impressive a couple weeks ago.
Agree. I caught it briefly a couple of weeks ago, but here along Turnagain Arm we have had maybe 3 clear nights in the last month. It's that time of year.
Same in Fairbanks except that pesky aurora washes out half the best skies which aren’t all that great anyway.
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