After what feels like an eternity of cloudy weather I got to see comet Holmes.
A bit of clear sky appeared , and the comet was just visible to the unaided eye here (the sky is heavily light polluted where I live).
Without any optical instruments it looks like a star to me - maybe it would be fuzzy in a darker sky.
Using a pair of binoculars at 15x magnification the comet is much like the pictures as seen here , with the exception of the faint green haze outside the brighter disk.
It looked bigger than I expected, and I noticed thet in order to get the most from the view, I had to use "averted vision" that is focusing the view a bit away from the comet. The brighter core is a little elliptic looking and a little offset from the centre of the disk.
If you have a pair of binoculars, you should go out and take a look. The Sky and Telescope link above gives you what you need to find the comet.
This is the third comet I have seen, only Hale-Bopp in April 1997 was bright enough to be clearly seen in the heavily light polluted skies of the western Netherlands, but this unexpected view is much better with a pair of binoculars , or better a telescope using a not too high magnification 20 - 50x should be fine.
Good luck comet hunting.
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2 comments:
Glad your hunt was finally successful.
I can feel your pain, I've been trying to spot the ISS for a few weeks now, cloudy every time.
I see ...
ISS, though, will appear again and again, Comet Holmes is a really rare thing.
Have not seen ISS either these days, since most passes are in daylight.
Good luck Gary
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