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A New Comet In mid October the comet 17P/Holmes had faded to magnitude 17 as predicted. But, on 24 October it underwent a surprising outburst and brightened to as much as magnitude 2.5.   The comet has been observed on 25th October from the Association's observation centre at Dhakuria, Kolkata, Under Supervision of Sri Soumen Mukharjee. Through 10x binocular the comet appeared like a star almost as bright as the nearby star delta Persei. Through telescope, with magnification 40x and higher, the centre appeared like a small disc surrounded by an envelop. The coma was a bit elongated toward north-east. No tail could be seen. Observation was done under strong moonlight. The sky was fairly transparent and seeing was good.   Position of Uranus Date(0h UT) R.A dec Uranus h m s 0 / // Feb 1 22 58 00.95 -7 24 37.3 10 22 59 46.35 -7 13 35.8 20 23 01 46.48 -7 00 44.7 28 23 03 30.72 -6 50 11.6   DWARF PLANETS Ceres : moves in Aquarius. Motion is direct. Pluto : moves in Sagittarius. Motion is direct. mv+13.9 (at opposition). Position of Ceres and Pluto Date(0h UT) R.A dec Ceres h m s 0 / // Rise / Set mv (IST) Feb 1 23 06 37.0 -14 45 14 9.15/ 20:13 +9.3 10 23 19 09.5 -13 17 55 8:48/ 19:54 +9.2 20 23 33 15.7 -11 39 46 8:19/ 19:32 +9.2 28 23 44 38.0 -10 20 52 7:56/ 19:15 +9.1 Pluto Feb 1 17 51 57.36 -16 32 51.3 10 17 52 58.24 -16 32 26.8 20 17 53 56.12 -16 31 42.8 28 17 54 34.08 -16 30 56.8 Times for rise and set are given in local mean time (LMT). IST gives LMT for the longitude 82030/E. To set LMT for other longitudes, add 4 minutes for each degree west, and subtract 4 minutes for each degree east of 82030/E. To set LMT for the following places, add the values in minutes given in parentheses: Allahabad (+2), Bangalore (+20), Bhubaneswar (-30), Bhuj (+51), Chennai (-9), Delhi (+21), Kolkata (-24), Mumbai (+38), Patna (-11), Silchar (-41).