By bob hatfield | 2024-10-16
Comet 2023 A3 starting to fade
On 10/16/2024 07:40 pm by Eliot Herman| Tucson AZ
Imaging was challenging tonight. Clouds and bad haze in Tucson degrading the imaging- shooting through bad air is never good. The results were reasonable but still limited by conditions. The apparent size of the comet is reduced just in the past two days and it is dimmer as well. The anti-tail is still visible but likely not to last much longer as the comet exits the Earth's orbital plane. In some days it will dim enough for the entire comet to fit in frame and for capturing with a telescope this can be good times, especially if a Solar CME tears up the tail to make it scenic.
Vixen VSD astrograph and Nikon Z8
Astropixel processor to stack 40 images integrating 1 min 20 sec and Photoshop to finish