Comet 17P Holmes photographed on the night of October 10, 2007. Even from the light-polluted skies of Rochester, New Hampshire, the comet was easily visible with the naked eye. Comet Holmes was discovered in November 1892 by Edwin Holmes of London, England. Observations of it this year were typical, and after passing perihelion on May 4, 2007, it slowly dimmed to a feeble 17th magnitude in mid-October. Then on October 24th it went through a major outburst and within a day was about 400,000 times brighter and easily visible to the naked eye.