The comet seems to be really hanging in there as far as magnitude is concerned. It remains almost dead-even with the brightness of Algol (mag. 2.11), but after looking at it for a while, I have to put the comet still at about 2.4 to maybe 2.3 at the brightest. The moon was really interfering with estimates of brightness. To my unaided eye, the comet was just barely becoming non-stellar, although it was still very tiny. It continues to increase in apparent size over the previous night, as it seems to be expanding slowly by the hour. The star-like nuclear condensation is still pretty easy to see, but seems just a tad fainter than a couple of nights ago. The inner coma is still very bright with a sort of dirty yellowish hue, and the off-center broad fan-like sector is still there, but is less well defined. The annular nature of the outer part of the bright inner coma seems a bit easier to see than on the last two nights, and the faint outer halo is more diffuse but is now easily visible even in my 100mm f/6 refractor. Clear skies to you.
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Re: ALERT - Comet Holmes in mega outburst
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