Most UT students will know of this little observatory on the Hill where Astronomy students can view the night skies. Now, a comet that has unexpectedly brightened in the past couple of weeks and now is visible to the naked eye is attracting both professional and amateur interest.
Paul Lewis, director of astronomy outreach at the University of Tennessee, is drawing students to the roof of the school's physics building for special viewings of comet 17P/Holmes.
Comet 17P/Holmes unexpectedly grew recently, says University of Tennessee Astronomy Outreach director Paul Lewis. Now it's bigger than the planet Jupiter and that means you can now see it with the naked eye.
If you want to see the giant cloud of dust and gas, dubbed the exploding comet, which is illuminated by the sun, look north after dark. Comet 17P/Holmes is in the constellation Perseus and it looks like a fuzzy bright spot, about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper. - Source: daveandthomas.blogspot.com
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