Comet 17P Holmes


             Comet 17P Holmes days after the remarkable brightening . This comet brightened by over 1 million times in the span of 2.5 days , unparalleled ! The photo was taken on the 18th of November 2007 using an MX7c ccd camera and 11" scope from my observatory in Colchester VT. AstroArt 3.0 was used for aquisition and guiding for the 7X100 second exposures . The setup has not been used for some time and alignment was off a bit as well as perfect focus but I was glad to get the shot anyway as I have an ailment that limits my ability in the observatory at this time. The bright spikes eminating from the bottom of the pic are from the star Mirfak in the constellation Perseus .Thru binnoculars the comet looked like a huge ball of fuzz actually partially covering the star Mirfak with a definite "solid" brightening towards what appears to be the nucleus . Darks and flats were used to process the image in AA 3.0 as well as a slight sharpenning to increase detail . The colors of the rays at the bottom of the photo are refraction spikes from the star Mirfak . !

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