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Picture of Comet McNaught, 2007. This great comet was just visible in the middle of the day, visible through cloud, and could be photographed in bright civil twilight, filling the frame of a 500mm lens at 1/30s ISO 200 f4. Alas, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will not be this spectacular!
Source of following information: Seiichi Yoshida's Bright Comet Page http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2023A3/2023A3.html
Updated on March 4, 2023
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Comet 2023 A3 ( Tsuchinshan-ATLAS ) was discovered on January 9 and is currently magnitude 18 and 6.7
Current observations estimate the nucleus to be 0.3”. Using this figure and the current 6.7
To visualise the appearance of a mag 0 comet, get a pair of reading glasses and view a mag 0 star, Rigel, Vega, or Alpha Centauri and view it's defocussed image through the glasses.
Post
* Profile
Discovery Date January 9 and February 22, 2023
Magnitude 18.7 mag, 18.0 mag
Discoverer
Purple Mountain Observatory's XuYi Station, Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) search program
* Orbital Elements
Epoch 2023 Feb. 25.0 TT = JDT 2460000.5
T 2024 Sept. 28.55963 TT Rudenko
q 0.3904059 (2000.0) P Q
z +0.0006401 Peri. 308.59081 +0.36275685 +0.90020587
+/-0.0030246 Node 21.58224 +0.91805884 -0.30086181
e 0.9997501 Incl. 139.08539 -0.15992321 +0.31481988
>From 155 observations 2022
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The pre-dawn view from mid-southern latitudes on October 1, 2024 .
The pre-dawn view from mid-northern latitudes on October 1, 2024 .
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The early evening view from mid-northern latitudes on October 14, 2024 .