Observation by Nick James: Two comets meet in the western sky

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2024 Oct 14 - 19:47

Uploaded

2024 Nov 02 - 16:01

Objects

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
13P Olbers

Equipment

ASI2600MC + Redcat 51 + AM-3

Exposure

3 x 20 x 30s

Location

La Palma

Target name

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Title

Two comets meet in the western sky

About this image

This is a three panel mosaic taken between 1947 and 2025 on October 14. It has been a nightmare to put together since the comet was low down and differential refraction is significant across each of the three panels. The sky background gradient was also very strong and different across each panel. The images were taken using a Bayer colour camera but, in the end, I gave up on trying to get the colours to balance between each panel and this mosaic is from the green channel only. The original mosaic is 12300 x 5000 pixels sampled at 3.12 arcsec/pix so around 10.5 deg wide.

The comet was in Serpens and the globular M5 is visible in the tail. Also visible is 13P/Olbers which put on a nice display low in the western sky in August. There are quite a few faint galaxies in there too if you have a look around.

Files associated with this observation

2023a3_20241014_1947_ndjsm.jpg (1.6 MB)

Like this image

David Davies, Mike Foulkes, Martina McGovern, Dominic Ford, Gary Eason, Honor Wheeler, Alan C Tough, Ron Johnson, Mike Greenhill-Hooper, Brendan Tynan, Peter Carson

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