Brian Kimball, Longmont Astronomical Society, took this beautiful image of Comet 17P Holmes and the star Alpha Persei (Mirfak) on Friday evening around 7 pm MST with a Takahashi astrograph and a SBIG CCD camera. The Moon will probably interfere some but you should have a view somewhat similar to this in binoculars. The comet is just starting to move through star cluster Melotte 20 which is also known as Collinder 39. On Monday morning, Nov 19th, the nucleus of the comet will be within about 17 arc minutes of Alpha Persei (Mirfak) . It should be within or very close to the comet's outer coma.
