Comet 17P/Holmes

Comet Holmes is a periodic comet in the solar system. It was discovered by British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. Although Comet Holmes is normally a faint object, it became notable during its October, 2007 return when it temporarily brightened by a factor of 1 million, in what was the largest known outburst by a comet. During this outburst, it became an easy naked eye object as well as the largest object in the Solar System, its surrounding coma expanding to a diameter greater than that of the Sun.
This image was obtained on the evening of October 29, 2007. It is an integration of twenty 60 second exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator , Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.