Eagles Fan in 'Skins Land

The weather finally cleared enough this morning for me to try to find Comet Holmes, which, as noted by Greg "SkyGuy" Redfern, has a coma (dust cloud) larger than the sun.  That size, however, does not make the comet easier to see -- the overall brightness has not diminished (it's still around magnitude 2.5 to 3.0), but it is now distributed over a wider area.  The comet is now passing very close to Mirfak (alpha Persei), the brightest star in Perseus, and it was hard to find with the naked eye here inside the Beltway.  Note that there might have been leftover haze and other atmospheric clutter, but also note that I could not get a good picture of the comet without keeping the shutter open for almost half a minute (I'll post later on).  Binoculars show a diffuse, greenish cloud near Mirfak.  Based on this observation, it's possible that peak unaided viewing for Holmes has passed, barring another unexpected outburst, as moon interference will wash out the sky in the next two weeks.  We'll have to wait and see what happens!  Also note that on November 19, the comet will appear to encompass Mirfak, which should be interesting.