“Comet Coming”
Path of the Atlas comet.
By Scott Hamilton
I just read about a new comet, or at least new to me, and it brought back memories of Halley’s comet. I was in high-school when Halley’s comet last passed through our section of the galaxy and I went with my uncle to see the comet. He had invited me to go to Australia where it would be more visible, but unfortunately my parents did not allow me to make the trip. Instead I stayed up all night with my Uncle Jim, watching the comet pass through the center of Virgo. Uncle Jim was a physics professor at Ohio State University and was fascinated with astronomy.
It was that summer that I learned how to locate my position on earth using the constellations and position of the moon. He taught me how the constellations change position with the seasons, and how to tell my position based on the season and time of night. I don’t remember much about how to do it now, but I still remember seeing Halley’s comet move across the night sky. It didn’t appear to move very fast, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t really moving.
This memory is why I wanted to write about comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Scientists are predicting that it will be visible by the naked eye beginning in late September through mid October, with the peak viewing on October second. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is expected to be exceptionally bright and even outshine the brightest comet in the last decade, NEOWISE, from the summer of 2020. It is expected to grow a spectacular tail after passing by the Sun at a distance near that of Mercury. History shows that comets passing this close to the Sun have the most impressive tails. The best thing about this newly discovered comet is that it will favor the Northern Hemisphere, being the first Northern Hemisphere viewable comet since Hale-Bopp in 1997.
I highly recommend finding an area out in the country, away from city lights, and go comet hunting, especially with your children. It may be a once in a lifetime experience. The only bad news is that there is a small window of opportunity for the viewing, and you might want to make sure you are at a higher altitude, as it will be very low on the horizon. According to https://starwalk.space the comet will be most visible by the following schedule.
September: from 7 to 3 magnitude, moves away from the Sun and begins to appear in the morning sky in the Southern Hemisphere. Short observation window, a good opportunity for capturing the comet’s tail. From September 27 to October 2, it appears very low above the horizon in the morning in the Northern Hemisphere, then disappears for several days until about October 11.
October: the best month for observations in the Northern Hemisphere. Around its closest approach to Earth on October 12, the comet will be at its brightest (magnitude might be up to 3). It will be located relatively high above the horizon in the evening sky.
November: from 4.5 to 8 magnitude, visible in the evening. Rises higher in the Northern Hemisphere after sunset.
December: from 8 to 10 magnitude. Gradually moves closer to the Sun in our sky, rising lower above the horizon. Not visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
Comets become visible to the naked eye when the light level reaches a magnitude of 3 or higher, making the best time to view the comet on October 12 as it approaches the constellation Virgo early in the morning between 5 and 7 a.m., just before sunrise. Ironically this will be the same location that I was able to view Haley’s comet back in 1986, except in that case the best viewing was late at night just after midnight.
You don’t want to miss Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, as if you miss it this time around, it will not return to our neighborhood for 80,660 years. The name of the comet contains data about where and when the comet was first seen. The letter C indicates a non-periodic comet, which means it will not return to the Solar System within the next 200 years. “2023 A3” means it was discovered in the first half of January 2023 and it was the third such object discovered in that time frame. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS tells us the discovery was made with the Atlas telescope of the Purple Mountain Observatory and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). Until next week stay safe and learn something new.
Scott Hamilton is an Expert in Emerging Technologies at ATOS and can be reached with questions and comments via email to sh*******@te**********.org or through his website at https://www.techshepherd.org.
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