Comet Holmes on the Move

Posted by Kelly Whitt Oct 28, 2007

A couple days ago I got my first look at Comet Holmes. I blogged about how easy it was to find, making a backward L shape in Perseus. As Comet Holmes is moving, the shape is starting to look more like a J.

If you take into account the brighter stars in Perseus, they will appear to make a shape like a J or a fish hook. The tip of the hook is Comet Holmes. It has slid upward from where it was just a few days ago.

A lot of people have the mistaken belief that a comet is moving so fast that it can be seen scooting across the sky. This idea is often fed by incorrect cartoons and illustrations.

While Comet Holmes is definitely moving, it is not moving so fast that you can see motion on a single night. But each night as you come back to look at it, you will see it has changed position slightly, evidence that it is indeed in motion.

At last observation, Comet Holmes still does not have a tail, but it does have a very fuzzy shape in binoculars and a telescope, giving away the fact that it is not a star.