Comet C/2023 A3 - Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Comet C/2023 A3 setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Oct 13, 2024. Canon EOS R Sigma 28mm F/2.0 4s ISO 640. Star-Glow filter used for the sky, layered with an unfiltered exposure for foreground and comet.
This year’s comet was something like a -4.9 magnitude; quite bright. I don’t know that I witnessed such levels of brightness when I had the chance to oberve. I only noticed the comet with my naked eye some decent time into twilight and, even then, it was quite faint. We initially tried viewing it from the Blue Ridge Parkway on the Friday night of October 11th.
My first night attempting to capture C/2023 A3 from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The atmosphere was VERY textured, giving and almost wood-like or paint brush appearance.
EOS R 135mm F/2.0 2.5s ISO 100
In the Past
I remember Neowise of 2020 to have been a more spectacular viewing experience. I think this is because maybe the portion of it visible to the naked eye was larger. Or maybe it was just because it was my first comet.
As chance should have it, I have actually photogrpahed another comet accidentally during the Winter in 2022 while attempting a Milky Way panorama.
Look Up
I must say, comets are not something I have not really become passionate about photographing, but have always enjoyed viewing. For all but the most spectacular, they go unseen to all but those who patiently and deliberately look up. A comet would have to be very bright and large to be seen by someone who didn’t know it was there.
A second stage rocket from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. EOS R 85mm 1/13s ISO 6400
We heard people starting to gasp and exclaim: “It’s the comet!” "Is that it?!” We turned to the southeast to see a bright light slowly burning across the sky. My friend confirmed we were both watching a Space-X Falcon 9 second stage rocket! It was much too fast to be a comet, and was not in the right area of the sky. The payload was….Starlink Satellites 😭
Sometimes it’s worth it to pause and look up every once and a while. You never know what you might see!
The comet viewed from south of Roanoke with Venus setting over a pink horizon.
I enjoy the pink horizon in this shot. I used the Kase Astroblast filter to make venus glow a lot more. EOS R 28mm F/2.8 5s ISO 640
Growing Attention
There has been a lot of coverage of astronomical events this year, both on social and mainstream media. This presents us with such a great opportunity to talk about resonsible, smart, sustainable lighting. People, in general, want to see the starts, Aurora, and comets! The vast majority just don’t know about artificial light at night (ALAN), but this is changing. My question is whether or not and when the awareness and subsequent action against ALAN overtakes it’s rate of growth, currently 9.6% annually.
On my Astrophotography Journey
This interplanetary visitor also has me pondering progression as a process. In order to progress, I NEED to go through some sort of process. A repeatable framework that allows me to successfully improve in both capture and processing skills. I hadn’t attempted to photograph Neowise in 2020, so this was actually my first attempt at photographing a comet. Honestly I feel pretty good about my results, but it will take some time and ovservation to come up with what my process might be moving forward on my astrophotography journey.
