(See description below)
Comet Holmes
The comet was discovered by Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892 while conducting regular observations of the Andromeda Galaxy. The first elliptical orbits were independently calculated by Heinrich Kreutz and George Mary Searle. Additional orbits eventually established the perihelion date as June 13 and the orbital period as 6.9 years. The 1899 and 1906 appearances were observed, but the comet was lost after 1906 until recovered on July 16, 1964 by Elizabeth Roemer (US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA) aided by computer predictions by Brian G. Marsden. The comet has been observed on every return since.
On October 23-24, 2007, the comet grew significantly brighter, going from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2.8 in just a few hours, while in the constellation of Perseus. The comet became easily visible to the naked eye as a bright yellow "star." Such luminosity bursts can normally be explained by sudden outgassing or the release of particles by the comet. A gas jet can be seen at the upper left of the nucleus.
This image was take with a 32-inch telescope by amateur
photographer Mario Motta at 1:00 a.m. on October 28, 2007.