Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)

This comet (and the weather) teased me a bit. Viewing circumstances were never going to be great for mid-northern latitudes. The morning of Saturday, January 11th turned out to be an exception, as I got reports of the comet being spotted with the naked eye from 40 degrees north. But when I went to bed on Friday evening, it looked like rain was turning to snow. I was surprised and chagrined to wake up to clear skies on Saturday morning, a bit too late to chase a comet. The comet was to make a close approach to the Sun on Monday the 13th, swinging around north of the Sun before plunging back south. There was a chance the comet might brighten enough to be visible during daylight.

I got up early on Sunday morning, but there were too many clouds near the horizon. I tried for the comet at midday on Sunday, but there had been a frost overnight and little particles of ice and frost were moving through my binocular field, the more distant and nearly stationary ones looking like annoying false "comets." Monday, the day of perihelion, was variably cloudy, and remained so, even though the forecast was for sunny skies. (See my post on Monday's occultation of Mars.)

During my lunch break at 1:30pm on Tuesday 1/14, I hid the Sun behind the roof of my house and scanned the proper area with my 8x42 binoculars. And I saw the comet! The coma was small, essentially stellar, with a short and narrow tail pointed away from the Sun. I only got to watch it for about 30 seconds before contrails and cirrus encroached. And they didn't seem to be going away. Plus, I needed to get back to work. I left work a bit early to try to catch the comet after sunset. The sky was still messy, but there were some clear areas above the horizon. I just needed the comet to drop into one of these, and at 5:15pm, it did. It had the same appearance as during daylight, with more tail visible. I watched it in the reddening sunset, and it slipped down to the horizon over the next 15 minutes. The comet is quite small, but bright and very condensed. It is likely to fade quickly, and Southern Hemisphere observers will be favored soon. I was glad to get to see it.

The sky at sunset on Tuesday

It's a Tiny Little Comet!

A wider view


I took another binocular glance at the comet after sunset on Wednesday the 15th, so it was still hanging in there on that day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Major Meteor Showers in 2024

Image
  A bright Geminid from the evening of December 14, 2023 This is still in DRAFT status. Check back soon if links or formatting are wonky. -WS Jump to Quadrantids , Lyrids , Eta Aquariids , Southern Delta Aquariids , PERSEIDS , Orionids , Leonids , Geminids It seems that fewer amateur astronomers are actively watching meteors/meteor showers these days. Meanwhile, there is still a lot of public interest, some from folks in rural areas who have a longstanding but casual relationship to the night sky and like to watch the Perseids or Geminids, and some from people who have never seen a meteor shower before but have seen something about an upcoming meteor shower in their news feed. My aim with this meteor shower outlook each year is to pinpoint the best times (if any) to watch the major meteor showers, and also to provide pointers about what to look for and how to increase the number of meteors you see and hopefully the satisfaction you receive from being out under the stars watching fo...
Read more

Omega Centauri, a Couple of Comets, and a Slew of Galaxies

Image
 2024 March 16 (a.m.): Omega Centauri, a Couple of Comets, and a Slew of Galaxies What do I do when it’s a weekend with good weather for deep-sky observing, but the First Quarter Moon is washing out the evening sky? Well, if I’m up for it, I just observe during the morning instead.  Just after midnight on the morning of March 16th, I drove out to a dark site at Willow Valley Reservoir, in eastern Klamath County on the Oregon-California border. There is a light dome from Klamath Falls to the west, and a tiny light dome from Lakeview to the east, but overall this is a great site with wide-open horizons. The reservoir itself was full. Google Earth has a satellite image from 2017 that shows it flooding the access road. It wasn’t that high this time, but as I turned in to the parking area I stopped to make sure I wouldn’t be driving into the water. The Moon wouldn’t set until 2:18am, so I left my scope out for a while to cool down while I rested in the car. It wasn’t that cold, abo...
Read more

Major Meteor Showers in 2023

Image
NOW AVAILABLE: Major Meteor Showers in 2024 Jump to: Quadrantids , Lyrids , Eta Aquariids , Southern Delta Aquariids , PERSEIDS , Orionids , Leonids , GEMINIDS , Ursids I had an active 2022, and got in at least one observing session for each of the major showers, even though the timing and moonlight conditions weren’t favorable for most. I didn’t have any exceptional meteor observing sessions; the best was probably for the Tau Herculids, which fell far short of the hyped possible storm but were still a very enjoyable shower.  In 2023, the Moon will be much less of a problem for the Perseids and Geminids, so these should be considered can’t-miss shower peaks. Moonlight casualties are the Quadrantids and the Eta Aquariids. This page gives observing prospects for the 9 most dependable and prolific meteor showers for Northern Hemisphere observers (descriptions will be most accurate for mid-Northern observers in North America–East Asian observers especially will want to check their loca...
Read more