Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: an image – 24 Jan. 2024.
After about five months, we imaged comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS again, while slowly approaching its best visibility. Hopefully it will become a bright object later this year.
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: 24 Jan. 2024.
The image above comes from the sigma-clipping combination of ten, 180-second exposures, unfiltered, remotely taken with the Celestron C14+Paramount ME+SBIG ST8-XME robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project.
In the image, having a scale of 0.75″/pixel, the comet clearly shows a coma and an obvious tail pointing NW. We measured it as bright as mag. 15.8 (unfiltered, R-mags for the reference stars from the Gaia DR2 star catalogue). At the imaging time, the target was about 30 deg. above the horizon, with the full Moon setting.
Comet C/2023 A3 was discovered on 9 Jan. 2023. Since it was announced, it was clear that this icy world might reach naked eye visibility late in Sept. 2024, with chances to be remarkable.
We will keep an eye and it and will schedule a live feed in due time.
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