Update on Comet 3I/ATLAS


My, how time flies! Seems like only yesterday I was writing about 3I/ATLAS in my Blowin' in the wind post. Can you believe that was more than a month ago?

But time is flying much more quickly for Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it speeds away from us faster than any object in the solar system. Since January 21, the comet has covered nearly 130 million miles en route to its rendezvous with Jupiter. That means it has traveled about 4 million miles per day!

Hmmm. A small comet that was already quite dim, moving 130 million miles further away from us ... it's a wonder we can still see it!

Wait. Can we still see it?

Well, I'll tell you what. My image above, using the 11-inch SCT and HyperStar at f/2, is a stack of twenty-five 15-second exposures, or just a little longer than 6 minutes. It's tough to see the comet in this picture. I couldn't see it in the 15-second subs and I wondered what happened to it. Did it finally veer off course like the headlines warned back in December? 

After stacking all the frames, I still couldn't see the comet. I really had to tweak the contrast and brightness to pull the comet out of the noise floor. So, the comet hasn't changed course.

There are literally thousands of celestial objects that are invisible to our naked eyes, but yet they show up wonderfully in a 6-minute exposure with my scope. Go back to my In search of Schmidt-Camera-like performance post and scroll down to the bottom of that page to see some examples.

In contrast, Comet 3I/ATLAS is not showing up very wonderfully! And it'll only get worse as it passes Jupiter in just under a month from now. I may try for a parting shot in a couple weeks from now, but I am not at all hopeful that I'll be able record even the slightest trace of the comet.

Godspeed, little 3I/ATLAS! Second star to the right and straight on till morning.


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