17P/Holmes is a periodic comet (designated by the P in its name), discovered Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. Normally a very faint object, Holmes brightened by a factor of half a million, in October 2007 and became visible to the naked eye.

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Image by Martin Crow.

Dennings observations implies velocities of around 400 – 500 m/s between the 9th and 16th November 1892

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This image by Martin Crow is a subtraction of a 2007/10/29 image against a 2007/11/01 image, in effect it shows the changes in the comet over this short period.

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Brightness measurements of Comet Holmes by Martin Crow. The numbers are in the astronomy unit of ‘Magnitude’ so smaller numbers represent a brighter object.

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Image Keith Rickard, this image is ‘Larson – Sekanina‘ processed to show the radial detail in the coma

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Image by Martin Crow showing some different image processing techniques to bring out specific features of the comet

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Image by Martin Crow showing some different image processing techniques to bring out specific features of the comet

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Image by Martin Crow showing some different image processing techniques to bring out specific features of the comet