Namesake and nebulosity

[doctroid]

We haven't had many clear nights lately, and on what few we've had I've forgotten to go out and look. It was mostly clear tonight, though, with a day old moon, and the next several nights are forecast to be cloudy. It was, in other words, possibly our last, best chance. Kenny and I went out in the driveway with a pair of binoculars and saw Comet

Comments

[mmcirvin]

Holmes reminds me very much of the appearance of Halley when I first saw it, in the fall of 1985; I think Holmes is actually considerably brighter than Halley was then. It was never terribly spectacular on the 1985-86 apparition, something that caused a lot of public resentment; even though astronomers who knew this was going to happen and remembered Kohoutek had tried to lower expectations, various companies hawking telescopes and such had managed to create excessive hype anyway, and the astronomers got blamed.

[mmcirvin]

...And, yes, I've seen some photos of Comet West that seem to imply that it was a beautiful comet, though I missed it too. Hale-Bopp was great, though--it was hard to miss.

[majorzed]

So how did Kenny react? Is he going to be an astronomer?

[doctroid]

Who knows? Some days he's going to be a teacher. Some days he's going to be an astronaut. He thought Comet Holmes was cool, but he thinks everything is cool, so no surprise there.