[BAA Comets] Comet 17P/Holmes: report on brightest outburst since 2007

[Richard Miles]

A short news article on this subject is now available on the BAA website at:

http://britastro.org/article_render/6226

Look for the series of images from 6 consecutive nights' of observations made with the 2.0-m Faulkes Telescope North on Haleakala, Hawaii, which shows the development of the coma. Note that the field star which was superimposed on the coma of the January 28 image has been subtracted in the series shown in the article.

Note also that a large telescope was needed to reveal this recent activity in 17P. However other mini-outbursts have been detected and it seems that in the past many other events will have taken placed but which will have been missed by observers. 

The history of 17P's observed outbursts (some from Z. Sekanina's work) can be summarised as follows:

Date          Amplitude

1892 Nov 4     9-10 mag
1893 Jan 16     4-6 mag
1899 Jul 4     3-4 mag
2007 Oct 23     13-14 mag
2009 Jan 4     0.9 mag
2012 May 10     1.3 mag
2014 Nov 8     0.6-0.7 mag
2015 Jan 26     3-4 mag

Richard Miles
BAA