[BAA Comets] Comet 17P/Holmes: A marked outburst on January 26

[Andrew Robertson]

Interestingly I directed my 12" D-K towards it's co-ordinates a couple of weeks ago thinking, 'I'll just have a look, you never know!' Needless to say, I didn't see anything through the eyepiece on that occassion.

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Comets-disc [mailto:comets-disc-bounces at britastro.org] On Behalf Of Richard Miles
Sent: 28 January 2015 18:17
To: BAA Comets discussion list
Subject: [BAA Comets] Comet 17P/Holmes: A marked outburst on January 26

It appears that Comet 17P/Holmes has undergone a significant outburst on
2015 January 26 possibly reaching 14th magnitude. If confirmed, this outburst will be the most energetic event of its kind since this comet's mega-outburst of 2007 October 23. Denis Buczynski noted a small outburst of the comet last November when the coma was confirmed to have brightened by
0.7 magnitudes on 2015 Nov 07+/-2. This event appears to have taken place some 81+/-3 days later.

Two 120-sec exposures through an SDSS-r' filter taken by the 2.0-m Faulkes Telescope North (LCOGT Network) on January 28.25 show an extended coma some
10-12 arcsec in diameter with possible outflows at p.a. 20 deg and 270 deg. 
Seeing in the images is estimated to be in the range 1.0-1.4 arcsec. The FITS images are not yet available (these require 24 hours to come online) and so accurate photometry cannot yet be performed.

Two previous 120-sec exposures through an SDSS-r' filter taken with the same 2.0-m Faulkes Telescope North on January 26.29 show 17P to be entirely quiescent at around 17-18th magnitude.

Grateful if on eor more observers can confirm this apparent outburst. 
Thanks.

Richard Miles

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