Observation of the unbelievable Comet 17/P Holmes!!!! |
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Here is the second, more successful observation of the comet on the same day. I had observed 17/P Holmes for the first time some hours back at around
10:00 pm in cloudy skies, in between the clear windows. I returned from
another observing of 17/P with naked-eyes and 10x50 Olympus binoculars
before going to sleep at 2 am. I casually stepped out to inspect the sky
condition which had got clouded, and only to my surprise there was a
transparent patch, with the major stars of constellations visible
brightly! Bright Mars meant that in spite of fast moving fog-clouds, sky
was good, and the rain cloud layer had moved out. This time it was quite clear and 17/P was distinctly "brighter" than Delta Perseus. Seems like I had erred on the previous occasion and judged wrongly. With naked-eyes it was brighter than Delta and closest to the stars Zeta (2.85) and Theta Auriga (2.62). I stared for long and tried comparing with naked-eyes and yet it was hard to judge the exact magnitude. I did not use the binoculars as it wasn't helping me in getting an exact magnitude. You can discard the
previous magnitude estimation and take this one, around 2.6 into
consideration, whatever but brighter than mag 3. |