  We present wide-field imaging of the 2007 outburst of Comet 17P/Holmes
obtained serendipitously by SuperWASP-North on 17 nights over a 42-night period
beginning on the night (2007 October 22-23) immediately prior to the outburst.
Photometry of 17P's unresolved coma in SuperWASP data taken on the first night
of the outburst is consistent with exponential brightening, suggesting that the
rapid increase in the scattering cross-section of the coma could be largely due
to the progressive fragmentation of ejected material produced on a very short
timescale at the time of the initial outburst, with fragmentation timescales
decreasing from t(frag)~2x10^3 s to t(frag)~1x10^3 s over our observing period.
Analysis of the expansion of 17P's coma reveals a velocity gradient suggesting
that the outer coma was dominated by material ejected in an instantaneous,
explosive manner. We find an expansion velocity at the edge of the dust coma of
v(exp) = 0.55+/-0.02 km/s and a likely outburst date of t_0=2007 October
23.3+/-0.3, consistent with our finding that the comet remained below
SuperWASP's detection limit of m(V)~15 mag until at least 2007 October 23.3.
Modelling of 17P's gas coma indicates that its outer edge, which was observed
to extend past the outer dust coma, is best explained with a single pulse of
gas production, consistent with our conclusions concerning the production of
the outer dust coma.
