Three weeks ago, Comet Holmes underwent an unexpected spectacular outburst that some have misnamed an exploding comet. This outburst beginning October 24 has vaulted brightness from 14th magnitude (about as brignt as Pluto!) to 2nd magnitude in recent days. On the night of this photo, the comet was easily visible with the naked eye as a fuzzy star in the constellation Perseus. In binoculars or small telescopes, it seems to explode into a bright hazy ball, a third the size of the full moon! The tail of the comet is not visible to the eye, because it is so much dimmer than the halo around the core. This image was taken on the evening of November 6, 2007, exactly 115 years after its initial discovery. www.stardoctor.org