Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

 

Tsuchinshan-ATAS on October 14, 2024

I began hearing about this comet in May of 2024. So I took some images of it then, before it looked like much. At the time, it was a cute little comet, with a tail stretching just 7 arc-minutes long (about a 10th of one degree) in images I took through my CPC-1100 telescope and HyperStar (see image at bottom of page). But according to the comet experts, it showed some promise even then and was predicted to possibly reach naked-eye visibility by perihelion. I had my doubts (we amateur astronomy types learned long ago that we should never trust the early predictions of how bright a comet will get). 

Last month, the comet made the news again as it approached the sun in the predawn hours. Images from earth and space showed a brilliant comet, but it was lost to me, due to the mountains east of my house that block a good chunk of sky in the predawn hours. I knew I would have to wait until the comet rounded the sun and became an evening object before I could see it and get a decent picture. 

Then only a week ago, or thereabouts, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS appeared in the Lasco-3 SOHO images, as it passed between earth and sun. It looked spectacular, but it was still rather small, in my opinion, given the field of view of the Lasco-3 camera. 

I began to search for a small, bright comet in the evening twilight without success, beginning on October 12. By day, the tail of the comet remained in the SOHO images, so I knew that it had to be very low on the western horizon after sunset. The question was, "How bright is it?" I looked and looked with my 8x42 binoculars but didn't see it.

Tonight I felt like it should certainly be visible. So after sunset, I searched the skies once again, to no avail. What the heck? Is this thing a dud or something? I had seen some predictions for the comet in the evening sky, with depictions of it passing between Venus and Arcturus, so I had a vague idea of where to look. Well, tonight, I scoured the skies between Venus and Arcturus in the early evening twilight and I saw nothing. At that point, I decided to check with my favorite planetarium software, Cartes du Ciel, and see exactly where I should be looking. It showed that the comet was situated above an imaginary line drawn between Arcturus and Venus. 

The sky had darkened a lot while I was inside checking for the comet's location on my computer. And now that I knew where I needed to be looking, I went back outside and the comet was immediately visible! My problem earlier was only that the sky was still too bright. In deeper twilight, the comet wasn't very bright, but it was huge — its tail was at least 25 degrees long — and I ran back inside to grab my camera and tripod. I hollered to my wife, "Hey! You gotta come out and see this!" To give you an idea of the comet's ghostly appearance, I pointed it out to my wife and she couldn't see it at first. She had to overcome her expectations of a "bright and obvious object" and look closely for several seconds before she saw it. She seemed to be somewhat disappointed.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is no Hale-Bopp, but it's a pretty nice comet! The best one this year, at least! It should be visible for the next week, or so. Go out and have a look for yourself! 

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on May 25, 2024


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