Local Amateur Astronomers want to take you to this comet.
The Tamke Allen Observatory in the west and The Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society in the south are going to be observing the comet this Saturday Evening November 3rd.

If you live on the west side of Knox or Loudon counties, you probably want to visit Tamke Allen. You can find the Tamke Allen Observatory web page at (link...). There you can find a map to the observatory.

If you live in the south of Knox or in Blount counties, you probably want to observe with the Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society or SMAS. Their web site is (link...) There you can find direction to the Locations and maps to the overlook on the Foothills parkway at which they typical meet to observe. They refere to it as Look Rock #1 as it is the first overlook, south of the big parking lot serving the Look Rock tower.

The comet looks like a star to the naked eye, but has a soft halo around it. The halo is easily visible in binoculars. SMAS member Joe Baldwin made the photograph pictured above of comet Holmes just a few days ago.

So bring warm coat, some folding chairs and your binoculars and join either of these local amateur astronomy groups as they observe this unusual comet.

Summary of astronomy related web sites in East Tennessee:
(link...)
www. knoxvilleobservers.org
(link...)

Forrest Erickson