Comet 17P/Holmes

Comet 17P/Holmes made headlines in 2007 when it underwent an extraordinary outburst, brightening by nearly a million times within just a few days. What had been a faint periodic comet suddenly became visible to the naked eye, appearing as a large, fuzzy sphere in the constellation Perseus.

I imaged this comet twice on consecutive nights from my own backyard, capturing its rapid evolution during the outburst. It was fascinating to watch the comet’s coma expand dramatically, transforming from a small, condensed object into an enormous, ghostly cloud easily visible even through binoculars.

The image processing was carried out using Fitswork, Photoshop, and PixInsight, each playing a role in aligning, enhancing, and refining the data.

The images were taken with the following equipment:

• Date: 2007
• Location: Krefeld, Germany
• Telescope: Pentax 75
• Focal length [mm]: 500
• Focal ratio: 6.7
• Mount: Vixen GP-DX
• Camera: Canon 300 Da
• Filter: OSC
• Exposure time [min]: 20 – 10
• Resolution: 5.31″/px – 3.04″/px