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Posts Tagged ‘C/2023 A3’

Ephemeris: 10/22/2024 – Reviewing last week’s showing of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

October 22, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 6:45, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:09. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:40 this evening.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS continues to head out away from the Sun and the Earth, heading back to the Oort Cloud from whence it came. It’s best showing for us came last week. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the weekend before and the first part of the week when the comet was its brightest. However, by Wednesday evening I was able to spot the comet, but not with the naked eye. I could see it in binoculars and I photographed it. Between the twilight and bright moonlight my poor eyes were not able to spot it. Now that the Moon is leaving the evening sky, and the comet is moving up above the horizon in the west, it should be easily spotted with binoculars towards 9 pm. It has faded significantly and will continue as it speeds away from us.

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

Wednesday, October 16th

October 16th comet picture

October 17th

October 17th comet picture

Comet track

This chart is from last Wednesday's planetary pos
This chart is from last Wednesday’s planetary post. Tonight’s position for the comet is marked 22 and it’s the second from the top of the posiotions of the comet. Tomorrow’s post will post the next 8 days positions for the comet. The number in parentheses next to the date is an estimated magnitude or brightness magnitude. 3 is fairly dim especially for comets so binoculars will probably be needed to find it.
Categories: Comet, Ephemeris Program, Observing Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 10/15/2024 – Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS should be visible this week if clouds allow

October 15, 2024 Comments off

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 6:57, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:00. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:47 tomorrow morning.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has been visible in our evening skies for the last three nights and will be at least bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. And it should be so for most of the rest of the month. However, this week so far has been cloudy, and it will be cloudy until possibly Wednesday night however Thursday and Friday look like the best for viewing of the comet. Of course this is Michigan, so don’t hold me to it. The comet has been pretty much living up to expectations as far as its brightness and the length of its tail. The comet peak brightness which came early last week, when it could only be seen during the daytime, was as bright as the planet Venus. Now that it is headed away from the Sun and the Earth it will rapidly fade.

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

This is the track of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS that I posted a few days ago. Tonight’s position will be marked by 15 for the 15th of the month. The number in parentheses is a projected magnitude, which may or may not be correct. Tomorrow I will be publishing the path of the comet for the next 8 days from the 16th through the 23rd. This is the position for around 8 PM. This image was created using Stellarium.

What we’ve missed

An image of the comet taken on October 13th 2024 by Michael Jaeger from Martinsberg, Austria
This is an image of the comet taken on October 13th 2024 by Michael Jaeger from Martinsberg, Austria. This image was found on the spaceweather.com page for October 15th 2024.

It was partly cloudy on the evening of 14th, last night. I went out a little after 8 PM to see if I could spot the comet. I could see Arcturus, however I could not spot the comet or the planet Venus. However, I believe someone in our area could have spotted the comet, if they were in the right location.

Categories: Comet, Ephemeris Program, Observing Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 10/14/2024 – The One Who Came From a Shooting Star

October 14, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Indigenous Peoples Day, Monday, October 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 1 minute, setting at 6:58, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:58. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:24 tomorrow morning.

I’ll relate it to our comet. Comets are the cause of meteor showers. However, our current comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will never produce a meteor shower for us because its orbit doesn’t come close to the Earth’s. The closest it gets is half the distance to the Sun which it did five days ago.

The Anishinaabek have a story about how the Wolverine got its name, in their language, gwiingwa’aage, which means “The One Who Came From a Shooting Star”. An evil star spirit crashed to Earth and created a crater in what is now northern Quebec. Later it filled with water, and sometime later this ill-tempered creature crawled out of it. The University of Michigan’s teams are called the Wolverines, even though the wolverine is not native to Michigan.

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

The possible appearance of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at 8 PM tonight
The possible appearance of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at 8 PM tonight, October 14, 2024, for the Grand Traverse area of Michigan, or an hour after sunset for folks around 45° north latitude. The comet at this point is about 12° above the horizon or a bit more than the width of a fist held at arm’s length. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS photographed in Utah, Saturday night the 12th of October 2024 by Brad Goldpaint
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS photographed in Utah, Saturday night the 12th of October 2024 by Brad Goldpaint. The landscape is illuminated by the bright Moon. This image was found on https://spaceweather.com in the October 13th post.
Categories: Comet, Ephemeris Program, Indigenous Peoples Tags: , ,

Ephemeris: 10/09/2024 – Where are the naked-eye planets this week?

October 9, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 7:07, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:52. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 10:57 this evening.

Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus might be spotted in the West southwest only 7° above the horizon at 8 PM, 55 minutes after sunset. It will set at 8:23. Saturn will be in the southeast at that time. Saturn may look disappointing in telescopes this year since its rings are nearly edge on and appearing as a line through the planet like it’s stapled onto the sky. Jupiter and Mars will be up in the morning sky, with Jupiter rising about 10:08 PM in the east-northeast. By 7 AM tomorrow, Jupiter will be brighter than any of the winter stars high in the south. Mars, with its reddish hue, will be to the left of Jupiter. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be in the western evening sky starting this weekend. It is expected to be quite bright, I’m betting with a broad tail.

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

Venus and the Moon in evening twilight, approximately an hour after sunset. For the Grand Traverse area of Michigan that would be about 8 PM tonight, October 9, 2024, where Venus, is only 7 degrees above the horizon at sunset. It would be higher from the south of us, below 45° N latitude, and lower for those north of us. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn as it would appear at 8 PM tonight, October 9, 2024, low in east southeast to southeast. With the naked eye it would seem to be pretty much alone in that sector of the sky of dim stars. Created using Stellarium.
Though not visible tonight, the comet will be making an evening appearance at the end of the week. The track of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) for five nights at 8 pm starting with Saturday the 12th. It might be visible on the 11th but the sky might be too bright. On that date we might be able to see the tail without seeing the head of the comet in the twilight. It should be interesting. The bright track on the lower left is Venus. Each label is the date and estimated magnitude. The comet is expected to be brighter that those estimates, especially during the first week of its appearance. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, October 9, 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
Mars and Jupiter among the bright winter stars, and above the constellation of Orion with its bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel 7:00 AM tomorrow morning, October 10, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus and Saturn are from 8 pm, and Jupiter for 11 pm tonight, October 9, 2024. Apparent diameters: Venus 12.7″, 82.5% illuminated; Saturn 18.9″, its rings 44.0″, 4.8 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 43.5″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 8.0″. The ” means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on October 9, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 10th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
This is a low precision ephemeris of the Sun Moon and naked eye planet positions for today and tomorrow, October 9 and 10, 2024. Some of the columns are self-explanatory, others not. The transit column is the time that the body crosses the meridian and is due south. Elong, for elongation, is the angle between the Sun and that body. RA is right ascension, which is the object’s east-west position on the celestial sphere in hours and minutes. Dec is declination which is the north-south position of the object on the celestial sphere in degrees and minutes. R is the distance of that object from the Sun in astronomical units. An astronomical unit is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. And Delta is the distance of that object from the Earth, also in astronomical units. I omit the ‘m’ in am and pm for compactness. The data was generated using my LookingUp for DOS app and displayed as a table by my Ephemeris Helper app.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Naked-eye planets, Observing, Planets Tags: , , , , , ,

Ephemeris: 10/08/2024 – Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS may be brighter than expected

October 8, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 7:09, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:51. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:00 this evening.

You are going to hear a lot about a bright comet visible in the evening starting this weekend. The comet with a long name Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will begin to be visible in the evening sky, and it will be very bright. It will be the brightest comet we’ve had in some time visible in the Northern Hemisphere since Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. The reason for this comet’s great brightness is that the comet is passing between the Earth and the Sun. This comet is very dusty with an extensive dust tail. Since the comet is passing between the Earth and Sun the dust scatters sunlight in a forward direction like seeing sunbeams through holes in the clouds near sunset. This is making the comet brighter than originally predicted.

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

The track of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) for five nights
The track of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) for five nights at 8 pm starting with Saturday the 12th. It might be visible on the 11th but the sky might be too bright. On that date we might be able to see the tail without seeing the head of the comet in the twilight. It should be interesting. The bright track on the lower left is Venus. Each label is the date and estimated magnitude. The comet is expected to be brighter that those estimates, especially during the first week of its appearance. Created using Stellarium.
The inner solar system with the paths of the planets and Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
The inner solar system with the paths of the planets and Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. The diagram is from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database. I’ve added the direction arrows for the motion of the comet and the Earth. The positions of these bodies are for 8:00 PM tonight, October 8th 2024. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created from the NASA/JPL interactive image, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Categories: CMEs, Ephemeris Program, Observing Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 10/07/2024 – Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be visible starting Saturday Night

October 7, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Monday, October 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 7:11, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:50. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:15 this evening.

In January of last year a Chinese observatory discovered a comet which was subsequently lost. A month and a half later another observatory in South Africa rediscovered it. That’s why the comet is named, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS after the two observatories. It was soon learned that the comet had a chance of becoming visible to the unaided eye in late September and October 2024, this month. Despite having a dimming episode earlier this year the comet promises to be naked eye and possibly even spectacular. The comet is moving from the south to the north and in a direction counter to the orbiting planets around the Sun. We will begin to see it low in the West after sunset starting Saturday.

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

The track of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
The track of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) for five nights at 8 pm starting with Saturday the 12th. It might be visible on the 11th but the sky might be too bright. We might end up having to be able to see the tail without seeing the head of the comet in the twilight. It should be interesting. The bright track on the lower left is Venus. Each label is the date and estimated magnitude. The comet is expected to be brighter that those estimates, especially during the first week of its appearance. Created using Stellarium.

The comet will pass almost directly between the Earth and the Sun on the evening of the 9th. It’ll be about halfway between the Earth and the Sun at that point. It should be picked up by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite (SOHO) which is orbiting the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point a million miles sunward from the Earth with its C3 coronagraph*. Then the comet’s tail should be pointing almost directly at the Earth. As the comet swings out away from the Sun it will also be more rapidly moving away from Earth. This is because the comet has an orbit that is counter to that of the orbits of the Earth and the rest of the planets around the Sun and will rapidly fade as it increases its distance.

A note on the discovery designation: C/2023 A3 is C for comet; 2023, the year of discovery; A3, third object reportedly discovered in the first half of January.

The SOHO Real-time GIF Movies webpage is: https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/gif/. Select LASCO/C3. It provides a time-lapse image of the Sun’s corona taken at hourly intervals for about the last 4 days.

Categories: Astronomical Event, Comet, Observing Tags: ,