Comet C/2023 A3, hailing from the distant Oort Cloud over Coos Bay, OR - next visit in 80,000 years!
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Within the next few days, a bright comet will be visible just after sunset in the west….
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023.
The comet passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye.
More details form Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2023_A3_(Tsuchinshan%E2%80%93ATLAS)
Orbital period: millions of years (inbound); possible ejection (outbound)
Discovered by: Purple Mountain Observatory; ATLAS South AfricaNext perihelion: 27 September 2024 18:00 ± 20 minutes (3-sigma)
Discovered: January 9, 2023Aphelion: 90000+ AU (inbound)
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2): 9.2 ± 0.3
Earliest precovery date: 9 April 2022
Why is this one so special?
2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is going to be very bright. While how bright it is going to get is unpredictable, astronomers agree on one thing: C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is likely to be visible to the naked eye. In fact, it could become an exceptionally bright spectacle in the evening sky, outshining comet NEOWISE which made an appearance back in 2020.
Here is where to look (for more details visit earthsky.org):
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The Washington State Star Party will take place at Jameson Lake State Park, July 30th to Aug 3rd. This is a great opportunity to learn about astronomy, has an awesome children’s program and awesome views of the night sky at a very dark site! For more information:
Table Mountain Star Party Home Page
www.tmspa.com
Jameson Lake is located aprroximately 30 miles north of Ephrata, west of Coulee City. This location moves us significantly closer to the Puget Sound base of our attendees and shortens the drive by sev...0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Nova T-CrB is very close to exploding. It is a recurrent nova in the constellation Corona Borealis and is reaching the point where we all can witness once-in-a-lifetime explosion in space. The explosion should be visible to the naked eye even from light-polluted cities. T-CrB is a binary star system located 3000 light years away, and includes an ancient red giant circled by a hot white dwarf. Hydrogen from the red giant is pulled onto the surface of the white dwarf, accumulating mass until it reaches criticality (every 80 years) then a massive thermonuclear explosion occurs.
South Korean astronomer Bum-Suk Yeom created the image below which shows where the nova will occur in Corona Borealis.
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Thank you for posting this! Will keep an eye out
A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on May 10th, setting off the biggest geomagnetic storm in almost 20 years-an extreme, category G5 on the NOAA scale, storm. It is subsiding now currently category G4, but it is not over as more CMEs are expected to hit Earth's magnetic field during the next 24-48 hours, and they could push the storm back to extreme levels. For more information checkout spaceweather.com. Here are some pictures taken with an iPhone. Aurora often just looks green to the human eye, requiring a camera to reveal the beautiful reds.
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In Kaleden, at one point, we could see greens and bright pinks with the naked eye. Such an amazing experience!
Incredible!
Awesome 👍
The Sun is very active. This shot was taken at the Tabke Mountain Star Party at Eden Valley WA on 11 August 2023 with an H-Alpha filter.
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Incredible!
I wonder IS it possible to come on FRIDAY to observe. It’s my husbands 73rd. It would be a nice outing. And exhilarating to see the stars form you observatory
As we approach solar max, the Sun has been very active. This image was taken on March 5th, 2023 at the Arizona Sky Village near Portal AZ, by Ajai Sehgal and Jack Newton using Jack's Coronado H-Alpha solar telescope. This is a composite of 500 video frames taken using a ZWO planetary color camera.
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amazing, thanks for sharing!
Messier 13 - The Great Cluster in Hercules, also known as NGC 6205 or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of several hundred thousand stars in the constellation of Hercules. It was discovered by discovered by Edmond Halley (of Halley's Comet fame) in 1714, and later cataloged by the comet hunter Charles Messier in 1764 on his "Messier list of objects to not mistake as comets". This color image is a composite of exposures taken the week of August 15th, 2022 at AMO with our 0.5m custom built folded Newtonian telescope. #astronomy #astronomyphotography
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Magical; like glass beads sharp.
M-101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and was communicated that year to Charles Messier, who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. This image was taken with a ZWO ASI071-MC camera on a 6” Astrophysics refractor at the 2022 Table Mountain Star Party in Eden Valley WA with 400 minutes of exposure.
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Bear this is what I was talking about
amazing!
Karen Goodfellow is this your neighbour? Is it open to the public?