17P - 11-16-2007 10UT - Misc
Holmes images from this morning 11-16-2007 10UT. 2 deg http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/v/kurt/solarsystem/Comet+17P+Holmes/036.jpg... 1.5 deg http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/v/kurt/solarsystem/Comet+17P+Holmes/037.jpg... Telephoto lens coupled to Meade DSI Pro I. 4 sec x 8 and 15 stacked. Temperature in valley was freezing - breath visible and frost on cars. At Little Mtn pass, it was a comfortable 6 deg C. Little pollution very low for that location. Sky brightness 20.17 MPSAS. M36 and M38 at zenith naked-eye objects. Holmes spetacular but dimming in small refractor. Small dim, detached pseudo-nucleus seen in the 1.5 deg image here also seen visually at U of U star party Wednesday night in LX200 at high mag. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net
On 16 Nov 2007, at 13:46, Joe Bauman wrote:
...My question is, why is the coma roughly spherical if it's shooting away from some vent?
I think a lot of people would like to know that, Joe. I'm surprised that there has not been a bunch of discussion about that very topic on the various professional web sites I frequent or the lists I'm on to which professional astronomers subscribe. One would think that if the eruption was caused by an impact the result would have been a very asymmetrical cloud similar to the one created by the NASA impactor hitting Tempel 1. And, like you, I can't imagine how the vent scenario would explain what we see either. To quote the king of Siam: "Is a puzzlement." patrick :)
participants (3)
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Joe Bauman -
Kurt Fisher -
Patrick Wiggins