• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Comet 17P/Holmes

Share this page

Geo Hahn

Geo Hahn

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
My apologies if this has been mentioned before but if you live in an area with somewhat dark skies there is a show each evening you might want to see.

Comet 17P/Holmes is a recurring and unremarkable comet until this year... now it has unexpectly had an outburst and is quite large (and fuzzy, as is the nature of comets). No tail visible now as it is more or less pointing towards us. It's very high in the eastern sky by 9 or 10:00.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes

Can be seen with the naked eye, but a pair of binoculars will give you a good look. If you can't follow the star charts just scan the eastern sky with the binos... nothing else out there looks like it.
 
It never fails, George. It seems as though every time there is a celestial event of note, the clouds move in until the end of the event!! I miss living in Arizona.
Grrrrrr!!!
Jeff
 
bugeye, i have a pretty powerful telescope, got to see hayles comet and hale bopp, im going to try and see this one as well, your right every dang time ya might be able to see one the skys r all clowdy allday. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif
 
When I lived in Tucson, I had a neighbor that was an astronomer at Kitt Peak. I got to spend a lot of quality viewing time up there.
Jeff
 
...lucky bastage... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

"Seeing" down here is poor mostly due to "clutter". Gotta travel an hour or so to find any non-lit skies. A friend who works for Rockwell at the Cape still does astral photos with "nitrogen soaked" Ektachrome and long exposures via tracking motors. Neat stuff.
 
When I trevelled north to visit with friends in Tomahawk, WI recently, we stepped out on to their deck at night just to take a look at the stars, and what a sight that was!

It's hard to appreciate just how much light pollution affects your view of the stars, but holy cow, WHAT a difference there was!
 
Had a look last night, Nice N bright. {looks like a very bright star in the eastern sky} Looked several times during the late evening. Apears to be moving North to South {earths rotation I guess} {I`m by NO means Knoldgable in these things}
I suppose there is an advantage to living out here in the stix. {very little light pollution}.
Pretty cool indeed, as well the Perseids Meteor shower on August 12. Although the full moon did hinder viewing somewhat I managed to count 29 meteors in a matter of about two hours.
There will be another Meteor shower in mid November. For those interested the details are here
https://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/
 
Back
Top