Edwin Holmes was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 amateur astronomer.

He discovered the periodic comet

Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

 17P/Holmes

17P/Holmes

Comet Holmes is a periodic comet in our solar system, discovered by the British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892...

 on November 6, 1892, and his discovery was confirmed within days at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Holmes managed to discover the comet when it suddenly brightened allowing Holmes to spot it, and the comet remained visible to the unaided eye for another 3 weeks until it faded away. 75 days later the comet once again brightened to unaided eye brightness!

Holmes was later awarded the Donohoe Comet Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Astronomical Society of the Pacific

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on the Pacific Coast, but today it has members all over the country and the world...

.