Comet 17P/Holmes Development
November-December, 2007

Comet 17P/Holmes Changes in November-December 2007

This set of images shows the development of Comet 17P/Holmes over a few weeks in November-December 2007 (the full-moon weekend of Nov. 24-25 was skipped).

While the nature of the film media and digital post-processing preclude serious measurements, the expansion of the central dust coma, weakening of the fluorescent gas shell, and disconnection and disappearance of the blue ion tail are apparent.

Photo info Date/Time: 11/3, 11/10, 11/17, 12/02/2007 evenings Location: Vanishing Point Observatory Camera: Mitsuboshi 6x9 Vacuum Astrocamera Media: Kodak Ektachrome E200 (+2 push) Exposure: 11/03: 1 x 30 min. 11/10: 2 x 30 min. 11/17: 2 x 30 min. 12/20: 4 x 30 min. Scope: org 125EDF2.8 Medium Format Astrograph @ f/3.3 Filter: None Mount: Losmandy Titan 50 Guiding: SBIG STV / Mini Borg 45ED Image Processing: Registar / Photoshop