Activity

Whoops, the above photo is from 11/27 and not the 26th.  Nineteen 5 second frames were stacked.  A satellite crossed just below the comet in one of the early frames.

Getting out 11/26 before the clouds, rain and cold prevent viewing.  Wanted another view and photo of C/2023 A3 as it appeared near an isolated star SAO 123928 in Serpens.  Upon viewing the 6.3 mag star I could see the comet (mag 8.1) a half degree away.  Below is a stack image of the encounter.

October 8th, 2024 meeting minutes.

Motion of C/2023 A3 over a 24 hr. period from 11-6 to 11-7 2024.  The comet has moved about 1 degree further from the star 74 Oph’s (bright star at bottom of image) position and it’s brightness has attenuated about 0.14 magnitude.

Another one of C/2023 A3!  The star 74 Oph (SAO 123377) was used to locate the comet.  The comet shines at around 5.0 magnitude.

On the Sun you can see a large spot with the naked eye protected by eclipse glasses in the left part.

Sounds like a plan to me, I’ll be there a little before 530 on November 12th.

Colin

I can bring my laser collimator to the meeting (it is an inexpensive one, $21 on Amazon) that works well with my 6 inch f/4 scope.  Might try it and if it also works with Colin’s scope he can get one for himself.  With reflectors, it’s a good idea to check collimation every time you observe.

Randy, I would really like to do that, if I bring it to the next meeting could we do it then?

Hi Colin, If the telescope hasn’t been collimated (mirrors aligned), then doing that may vastly improve the image. We can take a look at it and perform the collimation for free if you wish. Let me know.
Thanks,

Randy Hemann
whatsup dot hemann at gmail.com

<p style=”text-align: left;”>C/2023 A3 looking nearly stellar in my cell phone shot through my grab and go setup on 2024-10-27 at 7:56pm.  Visually, I could see quite a bit of tail but the phone didn’t seem to pick it up.</p>
 

Bob, article  https://rochesterskies.org/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas/ is now updated with your beautiful pictures of the comet A3 from October 25 and October 27.

Comet C/2023 A3 among the stars of Ophiuchus (R) this evening (10-27).  Some stars are identified with their magnitude and SAO number or just their magnitude. Left part of the image is courtesy Stellarium.

Probably however, the comet will be consumed by the sun in its closest approach. https://spaceweather.com/.  The latest SOHO image shows a small comet approaching the sun.

I think the very first opportunity to see C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) will come at 7:25 on the morning of October 29, when the comet will be at zero altitude on the Rochester horizon and the Sun will be about 3.5 degrees below the horizon. You might be able to see the tail rising, which should run diagonally to the right below Spica. Visibility will improve…[Read more]

Nice one, Bob.

I hope that sungrazer survives its trip around the Sun. If it does we’ll have another comet to focus on before the end of the year.

That gif file looks poorly up close.  Below is a reduced PNG file instead.

Observing last night from my observatory.  The SW sky isn’t too light polluted and the comet was viewed and photographed from 8 to 9 pm.  Was using my 6 inch 150P Quattro scope and ZWO183 MC camera and Sky Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount.  Stacked six 5 second frames.  The image below is a relative closeup of the comet when it was near star SAO 122368 in Ophiuchus.