Limerick Astronomy Club

Sorry for the zero amount of notice on this.
Some have expressed a wish to go up to the hill tonight so I sent out the text alert, we all want to see the comet again before it gets too faint.
If you see this late, we'll still be up there if you wish to come along, just give me a ring on my phone at 087-6137293.

Well,
It was an interesting observing session, as soon as we go to the hill the clouds came in , we did have some gaps so we got a look at the moon and of the now very faded comet Holmes, now a shadow of its former self. It now looks like a faint arc of light near Mirfak in Perseus.
Short of another outburst, this comet is gone.

Thanks to Frank, Conan and Dawn for coming along.

Hi Dave,

Couldn't make it out the other night, but I see it didn't make much difference.


I had been wondering about Holmes for the past week or so.
Every now and then, when we had a break in the cloud cover, I would look up and could never find it, even when the right area of sky was clear.

This evening, has turned out very clear, so I took a trip out the road to a dark corner to try some observation. With the naked eye I could see absolutely nothing.

I then tried the binoculars and focused on Mirphak. I could just about make out something kind of wispy above it. I really wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but I made a mental note of where the apparent object was in relation to two other distinctive stars.

I popped open stellarium a few mins ago and sure enough Holmes was exactly where I thought I saw something. Directly in line with what I now know to be Per2 and Per3. (They weren't even visible to the naked eye, I guess because of the moon).

Oh, well. It was good while it lasted, but it certainly is as good as gone.

Cheers,
Dave