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There have been some fantastic images of C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) taken from southern latitudes where it is currently visible in the morning sky. It went through perihelion on September 27 and it is now heading towards solar conjunction on October 9th after which it will appear in our evening skies from October 10th onwards. One of the predictions is that the comet’s magnitude will be significantly enhanced by forward scattering when it is at low elongations. There is a prediction from Joe Marcus which is included in my article here:
https://britastro.org/section_news_item/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-looking-good-for-october
That prediction indicated that we should start to see this enhancement from September 28 onwards and recent estimates obtained from COBS appear to show a brightening is underway. The attached lightcurve shows the current state of play. If this trend continues it is very encouraging news for us when then comet gets into the evening sky.
The comet is now rapidly disappearing from the morning sky so magnitude estimates will be hampered by strong twilight over the next few days but if you can get images where the head is not saturated and you have some reference stars please let me have them so that I can estimate the total magnitude.
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