Anyone paying attention to this recently visible comet? So far it’s just a fuzzball near Perseus, easily visible to the naked eye (though not what you’d call conspicuous).
There’s a good finder chart in the Sky & Telescope web story.
I was just outside to see it. It’s very bright but small - with my naked eyes (admittedly very nearsighted) it was hard to tell which one is the comet and which are normal stars. But with a pair of binoculars it was very obvious.
It’s pretty amazing to have such a bright comet appear out of nowhere. And it’s kind of creepy that it happened just 10 days before my wedding…
[minor hijack]
scr4, you are now, and ever shall be, my hero.
(Just spent an hour that I can’t afford to spend playing with that interactive star chart - I’ve been searching the web on and off for years looking for just such a great tool!!! I’ve hit that web site dozens of times in the past - don’t know how I missed it :smack: )
[/mh]
Lucy
The comet’s always been there, it only recently increased in brightness by a factor of half a million(!) which they’re thinking might be due to some kind of melting ice unleashing a pressurized geyser or something. It’s pretty incredible all the same – that kind of increase in brightness of a celestial object is usually reserved for the appearance of supernovae.
I know, it was just a figure of speech… But going from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2 counts as “appearing out of nowhere” in my book.
I was out taking (blurry) photographs of it last night. It’s not very impressive to the naked eye but through binoculars, it’s one of the more bizarre things I’ve seen in the skies. It’s a big fuzzy ball and it appears to be occluding a faint star because the center seems to sparkle occasionally.
Does anyone know whether Holmes is at its closest approach or whether it’s likely to get brighter?
Wikipedia says last perihelion (cloest approach to the Sun) was May 2007, and next one is March 2014. So it’s not likely to get any brighter. And even at perihelion it’s 2 AU away from the sun, so this comet is pretty much always dim, except during outbursts like the current one. (It was discovered during its previous outburst.)
It really is a wonderful sight in binoculars. Now I’ve got to get my lazy butt in gear and set up my telescope; it would be a shame not to get an even better look at it. (Hmmm… that might be a fun thing to do on Halloween night - give the trick-or-treaters a very different treat to go along with the usual candy.)
After sending the link above to a neighbor interested in astronomy, he replied with a pic taken from his scope. I emailed it to those of you with listed email addresses. If anyone else wants it, just PM me with where to send it.
Count me in, lieu…thanks.
It’s cloudy here. 
I’ll Pm you lieu.
Saw Holmes last night in my binos, what a huge sight! Looking at it nearly head on is another good reason for such a bright magnitude (relative to comets seens from a greater angle from the Sun). Very near circular in appearance, I’m looking forward to seeing this comet as time goes on and Earth moves along its orbit for the next few months…I wonder how long the actual tail is? With that outburst, it should be quite considerable in length, albeit being 1.7 AU from Earth and 2.5 AU from the Sun. I have an 8" Dob that I will start pulling out of my spare bedroom and spending more time outside watching it.
Cool! A comet named Holmes! 
Thank you Xema for the OP. I had not heard anything about this until now. I hope it’s clear tonight.
Cheers,
Mycroft Holmes
A comet! squeeeee! Two naked-eye comets in one year!
It’s clearly visible in Perseus. Finding it is EZ: first find Cygus (the big cross); the long axis of cygnus points directly at Perseus. For me, Cygnus was almost directly overhead, and Perseus was about 1/3 of the way between the horizon and zenith.
What you’re looking for is an almost-equilateral triangle. One of stars in the corner of the triangle is kinda fuzzy. That’s the comet.
Its just amazing to me that this comet is out further than Mars, and it can be seen so clearly. That ‘halo’ around the comet must be pretty large.
We’ve been really enjoying watching the comet, and it’s a particularly clear and lovely night tonight, so we’ve just been out doing a little stargazing. We could swear that the fuzzball has actually gotten larger (yes, we know it’s moving away), but we figure that’s because the sky was kind of hazy before.
We’re also having fun spotting the Orion nebula, and Sirius just rose.
When we first saw the comet last Saturday, we were at the local observatory and got to look though a 14’ telescope, which was a lot of fun. The guide there was a girl of about 20, and she’d never seen a comet before, so we made her night by being able to point it out. 
Everyone in my neighborhood keeps their porch lights on all night. I mean EVERYONE.
Just want to say that this comet is ultra-cool. It is really worth going outside and finding…even on a frigid night like tonight!
It is really cool - I’ve seen it a few times since this post.
A curse on Bangkok´s smog cover!
I was happy I could see it with the naked eye, and I have a little monocular or whatever it’s called. Just made it a little larger fuzzy spot.
Tonight I went to my dad’s and snagged a 20X60 spotting scope. Holy cow! It takes up half the field of view, I can even see 2 little stars within the halo of the comet.
That just blew me away, and I’m in town (on the very edge, but nowhere near a black sky). The better news, he said I could have the scope
I know it’s not an astronomical telescope, but I was really amazed at what I could see with it. I wish Holmes was a better defined comet, but of course if it was I wouldn’t be able to see it. Can’t wait to try my luck on some other objects, it has a little tripod but I’ll slap it on my camera tripod and get a chair next time.