A great comet outburst!

An obscure comet that was accessible for observing only by very powerful telescopes until now, has suddenly decided to undergo a spectacular outburst. On the 24^th of October, the comet 17 P/Holmes brightened by about 400,000 times, and is now a naked eye object in the night skies.

In general, faint comets brighten when they pass close to the Sun in their orbits. Along the way, to and away from the Sun, the comet is also likely to pass close to the Earth and therefore appear bright from our skies. Most of the faint comets can therefore only be seen when they appear close to the Sun in the sky. There is, for instance, a comet Loneos, which is also of naked eye brightness (although not as bright as the comet Holmes), which appears rather close to the Sun in the skies these days. It appears in the western skies after sunset and sets soon after that, and is not so easy to locate.

In contrast, the comet Holmes, has brightened when it has moved away from its closest approach to the Sun and Earth a few months ago. It is now in the North eastern parts of the sky in the evenings, relatively far from the Sun, It is also visible for most of the night. The brightening of this comet is some intrinsic outburst from its insides and not arising from a near approach to the Sun. That makes its brightening even more interesting, as it tells us something about the nature of this comet.

Another interesting fact about this comet is that, in 1892, when this comet was first discovered by Edwin Holmes of England, it had also been at a time when it had a similar outburst and brightening, a few months after its closest passage to the Sun and the Earth, causing great excitement in the comet circles. History repeating itself, in fact J

Where is the comet currently located? How can one view it in the evening skies without any equipment (if the skies are clear)?

It is not too difficult, even for the uninitiated. It is not too difficult, if there is no Moon interfering and the there is no haze, even from a city like Delhi. On Thursday night, the staff of the Nehru Planetarium did manage to locate the comet using moderate telescopic equipment, but, the situation did not seem favourable for easy public viewing from Delhi as long as the haze persists in the sky. Usually November skies, when devoid of haze, are good for skywatching, so the Planetarium Kept its fingers crossed, for better viewing conditions. On 31^st October, 07 when it seamed to be possible to have a public skywatch for the comet, a small number of people gathered at Teen Murti House Front Lawns to view this rather faint circular comet. Enthusiastic people and Amateur Astronomers used this opportunity to learn about hunting deep sky objects in the polluted skies of Delhi. Overall it was an exciting evening for all us, even if the number of people present was rather small. People enjoyed the first hand view of this fuzzy cloud like looking comet on that day and Amateur Astronomer tested their deep sky skills.

The excitement about this event comet is that it is so unpredictable. This particular comet is more unpredictable than other usual comets. It became a faint naked eye visible object in 1892, faded away and brightened again the next year. In 1899 and 1906, when it passed close to the Sun, it was observed. Subsequently, it was lost to view even during its close passages to the Sun until 1964, when it was observed again. Since then it has been showing predictable behaviour while amateur astronomers with large telescopes have been keeping it under observations.

Until now. It has now brightened even more than it had in 1892, when it had been first noticed. All over the world, people are writing in, thrilled at this naked eye visibility of this unusual comet.

It is a blackmark for the city of Delhi, that its citizens are not able to share in this thrill, easily :-(

Let us keep our hopes up. The comet may continue to remain visible for some time. As the Diwali pollution clears away, if the haze clears from the sky, try and spot the comet with no equipment whatsoever or a pair of binoculars if accessible. The map here shows the location of the comet in the evening skies for the coming weeks.