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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.
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.
Comet 2023 A3 was 1/10th of a degree from the star Alya, a beautiful double and the tail star of Serpens on 11/22 but cloudy skies prevented viewing until last night (11/25). The comet was about 2 degrees away from Alya then and so I used this star to find the comet. Alya is nicely split in a small telescope (22 arcseconds apart); both components are between 5.0 and 4.5 magnitude and are of the same spectral type (A) and white color.
The comet was found by studying the stars around Alya and forming a pentagon asterism. The bottom stars of the asterism pointed the way to the comet. This action is shown in the animation below.Attachments:
Glorious M42 (Orion Nebula) returns to our skies! The image below is the first one taken with my 6 inch Quattro f/4 reflector of M42 as one can tell from the spikes on the brighter stars due to the secondary mirror supports. 82, 5 second frames were stacked and contrast stretched.
Our Reflector magazine for December 2024 has a cover topic “A FLYING SAUCER IN CETUS”. I wondered if this might be referring to the near edge on galaxy NGC 1055 that I noticed when observing and photographing M77. Sure enough! On page 5 and 6, NGC 1055 is pictured and described by author Dr. James R. Dire as looking like a flying saucer!
I observed and photographed M77 in September and October of this year and was surprised by NGC 1055 appearing in the same field of view (as shown below).
Books on flying saucers from the late 1950’s do indeed have photos that look like NGC 1055’s near edge-on appearance.
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