Observing the Great Comet of 2024: C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

October 16, 2024

Although the comet had been visible for several days before, October 16 marked the first night without clouds in Belgium, offering a clear and unobstructed view of this celestial wonder: the observation of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. 

We walked to a spot with less light pollution and an unobstructed horizon 1 km from home.  Olivier was already there looking for the comet using a spotting scope.  When it was dark enough, we could easily spot the comet, first only with the spotting scope and the camera, later also easy to see with the naked eye, with a long (> 5 degrees) tail.  When the comet was a bit lower at the sky, it was not visible anymore with the naked eye.  Through the binoculars (6x35), the view was amazing.

From time to time, the comet was obscured by some low hanging clouds, but we were very happy with this observation!

I made a small timelapse movie of the comet.

October 23, 2024

One week later, we had some clear skies again in Belgium and this time, I could spot the comet from our garden.

Still a nice and obvious comet, but already much fainter than last week.  Not visible anymore with the naked eye.  The Analog Sky Magic telescope with Baader Hyperion 36mm eyepieces (6.25x) gave a nice view, with a very bright, starlike center.  The tail was a few degrees long and became broader further from the center.  Using the 19mm Tele Vue Panoptic eyepieces (11.8x), the view was even better.