Comet 17P/Holmes

[MikeP]

Skygazers,

If you haven't seen comet Holmes, tonight is a good time to see it. The air is clear and dry. Based on where I observed it last night near a star named Mirfak, a magnitude 1.8 object, it should be visible all night. It is technically dark at 6:20 but the moon doesn't set until 8:35. At that time Mirfak will be at Azimuth 50 deg. Altitude 51 deg. Look NE find the bright star Capella mag-0.1 at around 30 degrees above the horizon. Twenty degrees above Capella you will see three stars running diagonally upper left to lower right. Mirfak is the middle of the three. Comet Holmes was just below and left of it last night. It looks like a fuzzy star to the naked eye, but with binocs it is revealed as a ball like a round cloud out there some 260 million miles. The comet is receding away now, it's small tail is pointed almost directly away from Earth, so see it while you can.

Mike
646-8497