The comet 17P/Holmes 2007 outburst: the early motion of the outburst material

Abstract

Context.On October 24, 2007 the periodic comet 17P/Holmes underwent an astonishing outburst that increased its apparent total brightness from magnitude V~17 up to V~2.5 in roughly two days. In this contribution we report on Wendelstein 0.8 m telescope (WST) photometric observations of the early evolution stages of the outburst.