Comet 17p/holmes

[brendan martin]

Comet 17p/holmes which is normally a low magnitude comet has suddenly flared to 3rd magnitude is visible to the naked eye at the moment. It can be seen in Perseus below Cassiopeia here is a link to a sky maphttp://spaceweather.com/images2007/24oct07/skymap_north_holmes.gif?PHPSESSID=fmdm99obfg86u5f8kfm5u42oa1
lets hope for clear skys

[Al]

Looked for the comet last night and saw a bright yellow star in perseus. Through binoculars it looked like a globular cluster does in a telescope. Is this the comet? I checked a star chart to make sure there are no globulars in perseus and there didnt appear to be any. Does anybody know why the comet has flared so violently?

[brendan martin]

Hi Al, there are a few clusters in perseus (ngc869 the double cluster), the comet looks more like a planetary nebulae, the comet makes up a triangle with Mirfak and delta persei, http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/24oct07/skymap_north_holmes.gif?PHPSESSID=ms3enrcvrprhaidjmjnn6ll2g3
Nobody knows for certain why it flared, but this is the second time it has done this.