55°F

8:00pm-8:40pm

Chilly. No moon or clouds, but still relatively bad skies, too bright. *Big meteor! First glance up, I saw a meteor shoot from about the zenith to 15° to the east. Saw Andromeda but unimpressive. Too poor skies.

*Comet 17P/Holmes Visible w/ naked eye, looks like a medium/bright star. Also viewed through binoculars, wide-field, and near-field eyepieces (best through wide-field).

-Description from “APOD”:

“On October 24th, it increased in brightness over ½ million times in a matter of hours. The outburst transformed it from an obscure and faint comet quietly orbiting the sun w/ a period of 7 years to a naked-eye comet rivaling the brighter stars in the constellation Perseus. Holmes’ outburst could be due to a sudden exposure of fresh cometary ice or even the breakup of the comet nucleus.”