By Jan Mckee | 2024-10-10
Comet C/2023 Tsuchinshan ATLAS A3 at it's closest approach to Earth from Islamabad in Twilight!
On 10/12/2024 06:25 pm by Adeel Shafiq| Islamabad, Federal Area, Pakistan
Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS A3 was at it's closest approach to our planet at 44 million miles after making it's perihelion on 28th September last month and it put up a dazzling show with it's long dust tail in the early morning skies across the globe. I had been waiting for this comet to show up in evening skies and tonight I got the chance to image it from relatively clearer skies of Islamabad.
I spotted it in my camera's live screen at 18:11 PST at 7 degrees altitude and with my polar scope at 18:23 at 5 degrees. I kept on taking images till it disappeared at 3 degrees.
I hope that weather turns out better in the next few days as this comet is expected to put up an amazing display of it's tails.
Canon 1300D stock
Samyang 135mm f2.2 lens
Ioptron sky tracker
This final image is a stack of 181 frames which I started capturing from nautical twilight till 4 degrees from horizon. Series of 0.3 sec till 10 sec exposures.