Comet Holmes came as a complete surprise for me. I didn’t even know there was a comet in the sky.
Saturday night, I noticed something out of the ordinary in the nightsky after I walked out of my garage. There was a fuzzy ball that reminded me of the time I saw Comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake (I’m sure I mispelled that).
I looked some more and wondered. Could it be another naked-eye comet? I went back inside to get my binoculars (I still haven’t got around to buying a telescope like I always wanted) to take a look and yes, it was eerie. It looked like a fuzzy planet.
I figured it was a galaxy and went inside to check SkyNews.ca, a Canadian astronomy magazine that I subscribe to. The front page of their website confirmed it. It is indeed a comet!
Unfortunately, I’m surrounded by lights but fortunately, Flickr is popular so after I did some more comet-watching, I looked it up and saw everyone’s photos of Comet Holmes.
That’s the cool thing about Flickr. Chances are pretty good that someone will post photos of whatever event is happening. I discovered this with the last total solar eclipse I missed due to being in the completely wrong geographical area. I was doubtful that anyone would post photos on Flickr and to my surprise there was a truckload of photos on the morning of the eclipse (as in, within hours of it).
Anyhoo, I drew the above sketch this morning as I waited for my computer to finish backing up. It’s a little dark, yes, but that’s how the nightsky is.
Gotta run and observe the eclipse.