I went out for a 2nd night of Comet Holmes… this was even better than the first Even the brightest full moon of the year couldn’t put a damper on the views. I pulled out the BIG scope just to get a feel for things. There is truly no substitute for aperture… 25″ worth of Obsession Dobsonian in this case. Anyway… I went back to the refractor to snag a couple of images. I exposed for a bit longer today… and revealed a greater extent in the comet and its surroundings. The first image made use of a 2x barlow thru which my Canon Rebel XTi shot at prime focus thru an Astro Physics Starfire 160. This revealed considerably more detail inside the comet. The second shot was without the barlow. This (slightly) overexposed the inner portion of the comet, but nicely pulled in the surrounding stars to put the comet in perspective.

Need more? Checkout Comet 17/P Holmes at higher power and Comet 17/P Holmes II.1 with some background stars. More recently, see how the comet has grown in Comet 17P/Holmes III.