Saturday, October 27, 2007

Comet Alert

Comet Holmes Alert

UPDATE 8:30 pm: Found it, both naked eye and scope, even in my well-lit neighborhood. Bonus: got to show the boys too. Perfect night: go out and look.



We missed the really big one last year because it was in the southern hemisphere, but Comet Holmes is circumpolar in the north and naked-eye visible. It got brighter really, really fast and you never know with comets. Still, it's not going to be an across the sky spectacular like Hyakutake in 1996 or Hale-Bopp in `97, two once in a lifetime comets in back to back years. Because of the angle we're seeing Holmes head-on, like looking down the barrel of a gun, so we can't see the length of the tail.

Clear skies willing, check it out. Should be bright enough that the near-full moon won't inrterfere.

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