Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Comet Holmes November 16 & December 1, 2007




Compare the size of comet Holmes in the above photo I took Saturday night, December 1, to the photo on top taken November 16. The magnification is the same in both photos, about 18 power.
4.5" F/5 reflector, Pentax K1000, Fuji 800 film, 2 minutes.



The view last night, December 4, was amazing. The electric company decided to cut the power for a while to do some transformer maintenance. I guess they figured everyone was sleeping.

Everything went dark just moments after I stepped out of the shower. All the electric power was out for miles around for almost 2 hours. I dressed for my observing session with only a red filter flashlight. My eyes were well adapted to darkness as I stepped out near midnight into a totally dark neighborhood with a sky filled with stars. Comet Holmes was an easy naked eye object almost directly overhead and as big as the Moon!