fuzzy smudge comet

comet 17p/holmes looks great in the evening sky! night by night it looks more like an extended smudge and less like a point-like star. some of the kids who visited the telescope impressed me with their description of the yellow color, brighter center and fuzzy looking halo. one kid of maybe 10 years seemed confused by the diffuse image, after we had just finished looking at the crisp details of the craters of the moon... but i think he liked the diversity :)

here are a couple nice images of the view thru a 4.4 inch telescope from igor chekalin.

second day after outburst:


day 4 after outburst: