17P/Holmes is a periodic comet in our solar system, discovered by the British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. In only 42 hours of October 2007, the comet brightened from magnitude 17 to 2.8

From my front yard

• Earths cloud layer – (~5 km) ~ .00002 light seconds
• Comet Holmes 17p – (~350,000,000 km) ~19.4 light minutes
• Pleiades – 440 light years
• Double Cluster in Cassiopeia – 7000 light years
• Andromeda Galaxy – 2,530,000 light years

All of those photon's reaching the camera at exactly the same instant.

DSLR – 20 seconds, ISO 800 from Leona Valley CA.

Star field near the Double Cluster (NGC884 and NGC869 - right of center)

Comet Holmes on Dec 12th 2007 - 50 days after its outburst, it still remains a naked eye comet from dark skies.

55mm DSLR @ f5.6 120 seconds

Wide field of the Andromeda, Perseus, Casseopeia area, including Comet Holmes, Double Cluster and the Andomeda Galaxy.

M8 - The Lagoon Nebula - Approx. 4,300 Light Years Distant -Image taken at Mt. Pinos CA - June 2007

M20 - Trifid Nebula - Approx. 5,000 Light Years Distant -Image taken at Mt. Pinos CA - June 2007

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy - Approx. 30,000,000 Light Years Distant - Image taken from Leona Valley CA - May 2007

M42 - The Great Orion Nebula - Approx. 1500 Light Years Distant - Image taken in Leona Valley, CA - March 2007

M82 (left) / M81 (right) - Galaxies in Ursa Major - Approx. 12,000,000 Light Years Distant - Image taken at Red Rock Canyon - May 2007

10 or more Messier objects and countless features visible - Mt. Pinos, CA - July 2007

Club Star Party - Red Rock Canyon - Approx. 9.6654261e-16 Light Years Distant :) - June 2006