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17P/ HOLMES

17P/ Holmes on Nov 25/26th 2007 at 05.02 UT. The sky was completely overcast all night long with no hope of clearing. However the sky is unpredictable and weather forecasts cannot be trusted. At 04.50 UT I woke up and went downstairs for a drink of water when I glanced out the window on my backdoor and saw large clear sectors!. Pulling on a warm jumper and wearing only bedroom slippers I headed outside with the camera. It was a cold night, wet, with a cool breeze. Broken cumulus clouds arrived from the NW with strips of higher level cirrus lit brightly by the waning full Moon which was high in the west surrounded by a colourful corona. I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the slowly drifting clouds to open near the comet and I succeeded. This is a 15 second exposure at ISO1600 at 10x optical zoom. I like the moonlit cirrus crossing the field. Holmes looks very large and ghostly!. This was the best of the five images I took. Thickening cloud forced me to end the session at 05.20 UT. This is my 30th observation of comet Holmes.