2007 Comet Holmes Apparition

Comet Holmes burst onto the scene in October of 2007, while slowly moving through Perseus, when in the span of a few hours underwent an outburst of dust and gas release that caused it to brighten many magnitudes over the course of one night and continue to brighten for several more days.  The comet continued to loop through central Perseus as it expanded and experienced a tremendous reduction in its surface brightness.  I was able to capture it over multiple nights with a film Nikon FE2 and normal to slightly telephoto lenses.

Note in the image sequence below that the comet begins as a condensed and high surface brightness object but gradually becomes more distended and with much lower surface brightness.  The peculiar manner in which Comet Holmes looped through Perseus and simultaneously grew in size is unlike any other comet evolution that I'm aware of.  My first image must have been taken on or about 3 November 2007.  The images on the second row were acquired on or about November 27 and about December 5, 2007, respectively.  The last image shows the position and size of the comet on the evenings I was able to image it.