Beginning of the End

Work starts Wednesday and I am so ready. Starting to feel new-job stress of course, but it's better than no-job stress. This little 90-day experience has given me more sympathy for unemployed people. I mean, 30 days without a job is actually a lot of fun. But after 60 days it gets kind of old. And after 90 days you're getting a little scared and going kind of crazy.

Comet Holmes continues to move across the constellation Perseus (below, very high in the sky facing NE at about 10pm). It seems to be getting dimmer and more attenuated, but still larger. It covers as much area as the full moon does in the telescope eyepiece even though it's nearly as far away as Jupiter. I'm using the lowest possible magnification on my short stubby scope now and it is now quite large in a pair of ordinary binoculars. In terms of absolute size from the nucleus to the outer periphery of the cloud it is now the largest object in the solar system, even larger than the Sun (though of course nowhere near as massive).