Comet 2023 A3 on October 2nd with a 20 deg tail

[OzEclipse]

Comet 2023 A3
Capture Time: - 20241001.77 UT

I had low cloud and smoke on the horizon this morning causing higher extinction than usual. The comet has begun its dive back into twilight. Between smoke and twilight, I could only just barely see the comet by naked eye.

No visual magnitude estimate attempted due to the uneven smoke layers.

The photo below is taken with a Pentax K01 (a mirrorless K5) and a 50mm f1.7 lens at f2.8.

Joe Cali

[joshman]

Fantastic Image Joe! I'm hoping for some good weather over the weekend to try and get one last sneak peek before it dips into the evening sky next week.

[doppler]

Great image, that tail is getting really long now.
We are clouded out here at the moment but I'm still getting up at 4am each morning to check. It is still getting brighter and hopefully continues to do so until the evening apparition.

[Peter Ward]

Excellent Joe!

I set an EQ mount up on our front deck last night with the hope of capturing some high-res detail this morning. Of course it rained here.
(thankfully I had the forethought to cover the Mach2 with a large plastic bag
before retiring)

[OzEclipse]

Hi Josh,
Definitely worth giving it a go. You're 3 degrees further north than me which gives you marginally better viewing geometry tail rotated 3 degrees more vertical to thee horizon, but I think you'll be pushing to see or photograph it by the weekend. It's well into the twilight by the weekend. See attached rise set graph for my location 148E, 34S. The absolute times won't apply to you but the relativity to twilight won't be very different. Today it rose right on the beginning of astro twilight. The difference in naked eye visibility due to twilight between yesterday and today (smoke didn't help) was very noticable.



You latitude gives you a few more days before the tail tips over into twilight. You might be able to shoot/observe before the comet rises. Yesterday, I saw the tail quite early well before the head rose.




Thanks Peter,
My weather forecast out here is accurate enough that I know if it will/won't rain, will won't be cloudy, however, when the scope is set on the deck, condensation drips off the house right onto the scopes so I have to cover them before I go to bed and reach up and wipe it off before I remove the covers in the morning.

Joe Cali

[Derek Klepp]

Well caught Joe clouded out with showers here this morning.Will try again tomorrow but unless it’s clear over the ocean it will be no good.We often have low cloud off the coast here .

[OzEclipse]

Sorry to hear that. That's the reason I moved inland.

[Saturnine]

Great image of the comet Joe, more tail than I saw on Tuesday morning looking out over the ocean. Was a little late though, didn't set up until about 4:25. Through 9X60 binos , the tail was the width of the FOV. so about 6 deg. Hoping for another chance tomorrow morning.

[h0ughy]

awesome result and effort