Comet Holmes -bigger and better and a bit fainter

Donna and Jim and Ben and Martha were out tonight to enjoy the continuing Holmes show. It was great anyway you looked at it.

To the naked eye it now makes a new, but perfect triangle with Mirfak and Delta Persei, but looks to me like its down a magnitude 3 - 3.5 - hard to judge. It used to seem brighter than 3.0 Delta, but it also used to appea rmore starlike to the naked eye, so the comparison was easier.

In binoculars it brings instant recognition and surprise to people like Ben who have seen other comets. In the 8-inch reflector it takes on real form and you can see how the trailing edge - tail side - of the circle has turned ragged. In the video camera more details were visible - the nucleus and core and stars shining through - the ragged edge and tail - the darker donut surrounded by the bright halo, particularly on the still symetrical leading edge. And in the still camera - well, here are two shots with the Canon Digital Rebel, one at 75mm and the other at 300mm. Both are ISO 400, 30 seconds, F5 exposures. The camera was piggybacked on the LX90.