Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (finally!)

[cytan299]

Hi everyone,
It's really unfortunate that the clouds hardly broke for any decent photos of this comet at its peak. Finally, the sky was clear on Sunday that I could actually take a decent photo:

startools_C2024A3_GraXpert_small.jpg

This photo was taken on Sunday 27 Oct 2024 starting at 20:07 hours. It is a stack of 59 frames * 20 s for a total integration time of 20 min 20 s. I used my AP130GT + ASI2600MC for this photo.

I do have a movie of the 59 frames but at 112 MB, it's not possible to upload here.

As for the comet, it is fading fast and is no longer a naked eye object (at least with my bad eyesight). I'm glad that it still has a decent tail, but no visible anti-tail in this photo. All in all, I'm satisfied that I have a photo of this visitor, but I'm really disappointed that I don't have a photo of it when it was most active. I guess I'll have a chance to try again when it's back 80k years from now

cytan

[cytan299]

A better colour rendition:

merge_stack_median_comet_stars_smaller.jpg

cytan

[bernardchew]

Well done! I gave up trying after 24th Oct. It was all rain or clouds for much of October. Such a short window to take ~ 7.30-8pm - and the skies have to be perfect near Western horizon.

[cytan299]

Well done! I gave up trying after 24th Oct. It was all rain or clouds for much of October. Such a short window to take ~ 7.30-8pm - and the skies have to be perfect near Western horizon.

Thanks! I tried every night and actually did get it right next/close to a cloud on 21 Oct 2024 19:44 hours with an SLR camera. But it was so faint even at 3 s exposure that I'd be hard pressed to convince anybody that it's there. Can you see it?

1091_stellarium.jpg

1091_stretched_annotated_cropped_small.jpeg

Singapore is a very challenging place to do astrophotography ...

cytan

[bernardchew]

Just barely, though if you hadn’t told me, I would have thought it’s just scattered clouds.

Indeed, astrophotography in SG is often seems futile. The past 3-4 months have been bad. My last decent attempt was back in June. Might switch over to doing planets for rest of the year.