Posted on 10/04/2024 1:57:02 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is growing brighter in planet Earth's sky. Fondly known as comet A3, this new visitor to the inner Solar System is traveling from the distant Oort cloud. The comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on September 27 and will reach perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on October 12, by then becoming an evening sky apparition. But comet A3 was an early morning riser on September 30 when this image was made. Its bright coma and already long tail share a pre-dawn skyscape from Praia Grande, Santa Catarina in southern Brazil with the waning crescent Moon just peeking above the eastern horizon. While the behaviour of comets is notoriously unpredictable, Tsuchinshan–ATLAS could become a comet visually rivaling C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). Comet NEOWISE wowed skygazers in the summer of 2020.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
That’s beautiful!
+1!
Wow.
Great picture! Amazing !
Can this comet be seen with the naked eye? If so, when was it first visible to the naked eye?
“There will actually be two windows to spot it. First, between 27 September and 2 October, when it will be visible east just before sunrise, and then again between 12 and 30 October. This is when there will be a better chance to see it, if you look to the west just after sunset.”
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas.html
So in other words, don’t bother looking next few days, it’s lost in glare of the Sun and will be re-appearing after sunset in western skies, on evenings of Oct 12-20. After Oct 20 I presume it will be too faint to see easily as it heads back into deep space.
Mmm, yar, thank you Matey. That looks like a tasty piece of booty and with a fine treasure chest as well. Avast! I’d like this lass to walk my plank.
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