Home > Comet, Ephemeris Program, Observing > Ephemeris: 10/24/2024 – Looking at Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS for the rest of the month

Ephemeris: 10/24/2024 – Looking at Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS for the rest of the month

October 24, 2024

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, October 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 6:42, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:12. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:01 tomorrow morning.

Looking at the rest of the month in viewing Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in dark skies, we find it moving away from us and dimming rapidly. It will be moving across the constellation of Ophiuchus and it will be mostly in the west southwestern sky, And will need a pair of binoculars or a small telescope to spot. The comet has an easily seen tail, even when it becomes dim and only visible in binoculars. It should still have a tail. Comets sport two tails, a dust tail the bright tail that we see on comets, and a narrower ion tail. The ionized gas of the ion tail is driven back by the solar wind while the dust tail is predominantly affected by the pressure of sunlight itself. When close to the Sun it is moving more sideways, so the tails will appear to separate.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

A finder chart for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from last night until the end of the month
A finder chart for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from last night until the end of the month. The labels for each plot is the date followed by the magnitude in parentheses. According to the latest brightness observations, it appears that the comet is a magnitude dimmer or about two and a half times dimmer. It requires at least binoculars to spot even now. Created using Stellarium.
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