[BAA Comets] Comet 17P/Holmes: A marked outburst on January 26

[Nick James]

Here is tonight's deep image of 17P in outburst:

http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/2015/17p_20150130_1849_ndj.jpg

The coma "diameter" now exceeds 40 arcsec and it is significantly offset 
to the east of the bright nuclear condensation. I get a magnitude of 
14.7V in a 40 arcsec aperture using UCAC-4 for reference although the 
sky is very bright due to the nearby moon.

I have been trying to get images of this comet using the big iTelescope 
CDK instrument in New Mexico but it has been cloudy there for the last 
few nights. Good to know that Chelmsford beats the weather in New Mexico 
when it counts!

Nick.