Sunday, May 18, 2008

"COMET HOLMES"

Bill Williams, Chiefland Astronomy Village, FloridaNov. 9, 2007
Comet Holmes Swallows Star" - a mere snack! This comet consumed a whole GALAXY, magnitude 17.2 PGC 166473 on Nov. 9, 2007 as seen in image #1. This distant galaxy resides at a distance of 200 million LIGHT YEARS shining feebly through the blue-green coma of Holmes at a neighborly distance of about 200 million MILES! Image #2 defines the field of image #1 (yellow box) when the tail detached approaching the star 34 Persei. Image #3 is a Sky Tools chart with Holmes' coma superimposed at the time it transited the PGC galaxy. Images were taken with 6-inch Astro-Physics refractor and STL-11K CCD camera.

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