Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: new images – 15 Oct. 2024
We imaged comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS during its best visibility and, despite clouds, we captured stunning views at several image scales/resolutions, making justice to its tail and antitail, its brightest parts and the inner coma, with amazing dust waves.
C/2023 A3 Tsichinshan-ATLAS and its antitail: 15 Oct. 2024.
The image above comes from the average combination of 12, 60-second exposures, remotely taken with the Samyang 135+Paramount ME+ZWO ASI 6200MC Pro robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project facility in Manciano, Italy, under the darkest skies of the Italian peninsula. The telescope tracked at the motion rates of the comet. Unfortunately, the sky was not so good, with clouds in the area of the comet, but we could capture an interesting image, showing a mind-blowing antitail.
We also imaged comet C/2023 A3 with our ARTEC250+Paramount ME+C3Pro61000EC robotic unit, allowing us to isolate the region around the nucleus. The image below comes from the average combination of 11, 30-second exposures and was very carefully processed to keep the most subtle structures and brightness variation. The result is very satisfying, also showing an hint of the antitail. Around the central condensation, in the direction fo the Sun (S-W), a complex structure with dust waves is visible.
C/2023 A3 Tsichinshan-ATLAS, brightest region: 15 Oct. 2024.
We managed to make a close-up of the very inner coma, to better investigate the shells we mentioned above, capturing the following view.
C/2023 A3 Tsichinshan-ATLAS dust waves: 15 Oct. 2024.
The image above comes from the sigma-clipping combination of 22, 4-second exposures, unfiltered and unguided, remotely taken with the Celestron C14+Paramount ME+SBIG ST8-XME robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the comet during the exposure. A rotational gradient was applied and the dust waves reveal a very beautiful structure.
We will continue monitoring this comet, despite the weather is not cooperating at all.
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